Valdez daily prospector., 1914-03-18
WEDNESDAY, MARCH IS, 1914.
MExIco'S PETTY ARMIES.

There has been no clearer mdlca- ton of the absurdity of the present warlike situation in Mexico than the statement published recently of the number of men under arms in the support of Huerta and in the various bodies opposing him. These figures were derived directly from the reports received by the United States gov ernment from it's consuls and other agents and now in the preseason of the War department The Dictator has boasted of an army ranging in numbers from SO,000 to 150,000 men and has said he would increase his force to 50O,0O0. Probably there is no serious error in the estimate of 10000 men, distributed at the various points in Mexico where his rule is still recognized. In the estimate of 43,OOO rebels under arms there is a greater chance for an over-estimate of the tnttHuerta strength, The 5000 men reported in one week by one agent at Ojinaga, for instance, may well be the same 5000 reported in another at Chihuahua or some in termediate point. The 43,000, it must be remembered, includes not only Villas men and the immediate fol- lowers of Carranza, but all the Zapa- tistas, the Puebla Indians in revolt, and the various revolutionary bands in the far south, who have no con- nection whatever. with the Constitu- tionalist movement
 Most of the rebel soldiers are poor ly clothed, fed and equipped. They are generally shoeless and many of them have belonged nearly all their lives to marauding bands eluding DO lice pursuit in the mountain fastness- es On both sides many of the sol diers have very little affection for the special cause they serve. They are Mexicans, and their pride in their ma tive land is not inferior to that of any storied Greek or Roman, but it is common in Mexico for the conquer ed troops to enlist under the flag of their Mexican conqueror. When he approached the Mexican capital, on the eve of the downfall of Maximilian, the army of Porfirio Diaz was largely made up of men who had served in the imperial garrisons at Oaxaca and Puebla or had marched with Madraz in his futile attempt to check Por- tirio's progress. Obviously, if there were military leader of the ability of Diaz or Escobedo now in Mexico he could soon control the situation. The incompetence of the present leaders on both sides, however, is as striking as the small number of sol diers who have served to create a situation which has disturbed the whole world. Not only in military leadership, while Huerta and Blan- quet loiter in the capital, but ill statesmanship Mexico is now sadly deficient If one of those able men who helped 10 control the nations affairs in the thirty years of growth and prosperity remains in the land he keeps strangely silent, while the large number of hitherto prosperous citizens endure. month after month. the continuance of a situation that sems to sympathetic outsiders unen- durable.
 More than ever, ill view of this au- thentic statement of the smallness of the armed forces in Mexico, does the acceptance of the situation by the business men and the professional classes seem unaccountable. An or ganization of sober citizenship to ov- ercome by peaceful measures the disturbing influence of Huerta on the one hand and his active but not very potent enemies on the other ought to be easily effected. No wonder peo- pie. are continually calling Mexico a benighted country in which medieval ideas still prevail; but it is, nevertha7 less, a modern country with great in dustries, The revelation that it's pres ent warlike aspect is SO superficial that less. than one-third of one pe1 cent of its population Is actively con cerned in it's present troubles. excen' in the character of 'lnresisting sqtrer- CTS. ought to serve to relieve some what the recurrence Of Texan hyster- ia at Austin and Washingten.-Nev York Times.