Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-23
honesty are bound to win their penalty
sooner or later.
Yes, We Are "Sorry."

I'VE are sorry, terribly sorry that
American and Mexican blood has been
shed on a meaningless pretense-the
| American navy making war on one
man mot the Mexican people II
| this shedding of innocent blood had
been caused through the action of
America because CT absence of author
ity and inability of Mexico to dis
charge it's international affairs (as
repeatedly shown in recent months
by murder of Americans and others
the footing of foreign property and
all sorts of indignities) Americans
might have felt that their limit of en-
durance had been reached. But the
declaration of a personal war, because
one man in America has declared one
man in Mexico 10 unfit for control Of
its affairs, TO our mind is a stupendous
blunder, blot on American history.
Why have we not made war on the
bandits whom we have furnished arms
with the manifest purpose of con-
tinuing the bloodshed in Mexico until
Huerta is removed? These same ir-
responsible outlaws and cutthroats TO
whom the government will go when
Huerta is driven out or slain-by our
aid-have killed Americans and have
neither apologized nor explained. Why
did we not make war on them for
their outrages instead of seiZing this
silly pretense of making the man
against whom we are waging war
Salute the flag?
We believe that the skim milk pol
icy of the United States for many
months, while outrage after outrage
has been committed wantonly, and
known to the civilized world; while
unrest and violence have been aided
by our removal of neutrality restric-
pretext in order to crush the man
who has defied and held up certain
powerful American business interests,
is a black mark against this nation
which centuries will not erase.
1t is pitiful spectacle of duplicity
and pretense. Its animus is bound
to come to light, for murder will out"
and our entry into Mexico and her af-
fairs is nothing more or less. We
have openly aided men who are known
to be bandits and weak, cheap souled
opportunists, for the sake of over
throwing the strong man who could
control Mexico and throw off the
clutch of American commercial
leeches.
We have not made war to settle
anarchistic conditions in the interests
of Christian civilization, but we have
made war to create those conditions
that man Objectionable to American
interests, and an American Presidents
perception of the difference in the
value of rotten eggs. might be re-
moved.
Our personal war in Mexico means
the laying of American boys to rest in
the soil of Mexico, and the slaughter
of Mexicans loyal to their ruler is
unforgiveable. In these days when
we are preaching peace on earth"
and arbitration of all, we shoot down
t. nykt
trary command to the head of a sister
nation to salute our flags
Has Mexico no rights to a hearing?
The Presidents sudden action and in
sistence savors of the lynching spirit,
and we believe the calm review Of his
tory will 50 catalog it.
The 'hoorah" and excitement Of
war stirs people to do inhuman things.
but it is not the people who have sons
and brothers to send into a strange
climate as targets for guerillas, crust
Lizards, tarantulas, and other insects,
fevers and heat.
1t may have been horrible thing to
arrest American marines who were
mistaken for an enemy, and who We're
promptly released when their identity
was known and abject apology made,
but what of the boys whose blood paid
for their own nations haste and in
tolerance?
If the city of Portland were men
aced on all sides by revolutionists and
the water front patrol should discover
boat load approaching In violation