Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 191?-19??, 1914-04-23
WILSON APPEALS TO CON-
GRESS FOR MORE POWER
To Force Huerta to Comply With De
mands of Admiral May0-Spec-
iaI Message to Joint
Session.

Washington, April 20.-Presiden
Wilson today laid the Mexican situa
ton before Congress in these words
Gentlemen of the Congress:
''It is my duty to call your attention
to a situation which has arisen III ou-
dealings with Gen. Vtctoriano Huerts
at Mexico City, which calls for action
and to ask your advice and co-opera-
ton in acting upon it. On the nintF
of April a paymaster of the U. ). ;
Dolphin landed at the Iturbide bridge
landing at Tampico with Whaleboa'
and boats crew to take off certain
supplies needed by his ship, and While
engaged in loading the boat was ar
rested by an officer and squad O.
men of the army Of General Huerta
Neither the paymaster nor any one o
the men were in the boat when the ar
rest took place and were obliged tC
leave it and submit to be taken into
custody, Notwithstanding the fact tina
the boat carried, both at her bow an6
at her stern, the flag Of the United
States. The officer who made the ar
rest was proceeding UP one of tho
streets of the town with his prison
ers when met by an officer of highel
authority, who ordered him to return
to the landing and await orders; ant
within an hour and half from thf
time of the arrest orders were recelv
ed from the commander OF the buer
tista forces at TampicO for the release
of the paymaster and his men. The
release was followed by apologies from
the commander and later by an eN-
preston Of regret by General Huerta
himself General Huerta urged thdt
martial law obtained at the time al
Tampico, that orders had been issued
that no one should be allow ed to lane
at the Iturbtde bridge; and that our
sailors had no right to land there. Ou}
naval commanders at the port had no
been notified of any such prohibition
and, even if they had been, the only
justifiable course open to the loca
authorities would have been to re
quest the paymaster and his crew tC
withdraw and to lodge protest with
the commanding officer Of the Heet
Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as
so serious an affrOnt that he was nof
satisfied with the apologies offered, buf
demanded that the flag of the United
States be saluted with special cere
mony by the military commander
the port.
''The incident cannot be regarded
a trivial one, especially as two of the
men arrested we're taken from tho
boat itself-that is to say, from the
territory of the United States; but haC
f ION hpA4
attributed to the ignorance or AFRO
gance of a single officer. Unfortun
.ately, it was not an isolated case. I
series of incidents have recently oc
CURED which cannot but create the
impression that the representatives
of General Huerta were willing to g
out of their way to show disregard To-
the dignity and rights of this govern
ment, and felt perfectly safe in doine
what they pleased, making free t.
show in many ways their irritation
and contempt.
ga few days after the incident a
Tampico an orderly from the U. S. S
Minnesota was arrested at Vera Cruz
while ashore in uniform to obtain the
ships mail, and was for time thrown
into jail An official dispatch from
this government to its embassy at
Mexico City was withheld by the au-
thorities of the telegraphic service
until peremptorily demanded by oul
charge d'affaires in person. So far as
I can learn such wrongs and annoy
ances have been suffered to occu
only against representatives of the
United States. l have heard of NJ
complaints from other government
of similar treatment. Subsequent ex
plantations and formal apologies die
not and could not alter the popula,
impression, which, it is possible, it
had been the object of the Huertista
authorities to create, that the govern
ment of the United States was being
singled out, and might be singled ou'
with impunity, for Sights and affronte
in retaliation for it's refusal to recog-
nize the prtensions of General Huerte
to be regarded as the constitutional
provisional President of the Republic
of Mexico.
"The manifest danger of such sit
uation was that such offences might
grow from bad to worse until some
thing happened of so gross and intol-
cradle a sort as to lead directly and
inevitably to armed conflict. 1t wa;
necessary that the apologies of Gen
eral Huerta and his representative
should go much further, that they