The Washington herald., 1914-06-21
OFFICIALS HERE HOPEFUL.
yielding by MeNicans or Coneess-
ions by MedIntors Might Help.

Yielding by MeNfcnnS or Conces-
ions by MediatorS Might Help.
Washington officials again professed
hopefulness last night for the success
Of the Niagara Falls mediation confer
ences. They maintained this show Of
hopefulness in the face OF the fact that
the United States is determined to stand
firmly by its ultimatum that consttu-
tionalist must be selected as head OF the
proposed provisional government
In view of this stand by the United
States. there are apparently only two
possible developments that could give
ground for such encouragement. These
would be a yielding by the Mexican dele
gates from their insistence that neutral
be named as provisional president, or.
second. that the mediators themselves
would make concessions which would
permit of the admission Of the constitu-
tionalists TO the Niagara Falls confer
ence.
Hope Is Renewed. 5-
Indications in Washington last night
pointed altogether TO the belief that the
renewed hope OF the President and other
Washington officials is due to negotia-
tions in regard TO the admission Of the
constitutionalists TO the Niagara Falls
gathering and not to any yielding on the
part of the Huerta delegates.
The understanding in Washington Is
that the United States and the media
tors. realizing that the mediation was
about to go on the rocks, have been
considering ways and means OF prolong-
ing the conferences in the hope Of some
favorable development offering a solu-
ton of the difficulties.
Constitutionalist representatives ac-
knowledged though that they knew of no
developments affecting the fundamentals
of the Mexican problem which would
warrant the administrators expressing
hopefulnesS. The Interpretation put
upon these expressions by Washington
generally was that the United States
desired to prolOng the conference and
TO put the most encouraging face pos
sible on the general situation.
All speculation in regard to the future
of mediation, so far as the Washington
government is concerned. was, however.
in confusion as a result Of the state
ments indicating that the break between
Carranza and Villa was widening, and
that Villa had proclaimed Gen. Angeles
provisional President of Mexico. At the
same time reports were received that
Gen. Carranza had deposed Gen. Felipe
Angeles as acting minister of war.
No Combination Here.
No official confirmation could be OBJ
tanned at the State Department OF these
reports and the constitutionalist leaders
in Washington were able to throw no
definite light on them. They had been
in communication with Carranza late in
the afternoon and he had said nothing
about such developments. 1t was .ap-
parent though, that the members of the
constitutionalist junta were greatly wor-
ried over the latest reports from North
ern Mexico.
The attention of the Secretary of State
was yesterday called to what purported
to be a criticism of the conduct of Mr.
Douglas as attorney for the constitu-
tionalists. He was asked whether or
not the criticism was well founded. He
replied:
mo. It is not well founded. Any criti-
cism of Judge Douglas conduct in the
Mexican matter would be very unfair
to him. We have found him very frank
and candid in all his communications
and We have esteemed ourselves fortu-
nate in being able to communicate with
and receive communications from the
constitutionalists through SO trustworthy
q medium"