The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-05-06

press gang. and that many criminals
are turned out of prison into the army,
we see at once what a tragic farce the
civil war in Mexico is.
After the evacuation of Torreon by
the federals, General Munguia was
tried by a court of inquiry. The in
tentlon was to shoot him. This was
his defense: How could l meet the
rebels in the open?" he asked. They
hght in loose formation. 1 was obliged
to keep my troops together. If l did
not they would melt away. Desertion
IS the idea uppermost in almost every
soldiers mind. Again, how could I or
der my officers to lead their men to
the attack? 1 knew their men would
shoot them down as soon as they got
the chance"
The best generals would find it hard
to do anything with such an army as
his until they had disciplined it and
discovered a certain number of men
whom they could trust. Mexican gen.
erals have unfortunately very little
talent for war, and they make. as a
rule, no attempt to lick their own
men into shape. Officers in COM
mand are to our minds incredibly
slack. At a small battle in the state
of Morelos the federals, by use Of ma
chine guns, forced the rebels to retire.
The nature of the country made it
easy for their retreat to be cut off. But
the federal colonel looked at his
watch.
1T is time for dinner" he said, and
told his bugler to sound Cease fire..
The rebels leisurely went away.
That kind of incident, which happens
daily, helps to keep current the belief
that federal officers do not wish to
bring h var to an end. They do not
a soldering seriously. At some gun
trials near the capital the generals
daughter came forward to fire a
charge; then his wife was urged to
show her courage; then his son must
do likewise! 1t was more like an aft
ernOon tea party than a serious piece
Of military business. Naturally when
guns go INTO action they are handled
very often without any effect. At
TuXpam, in the oil district. a Abarge-
load of women n children LETT sud-
denly n afternoon for. a safer spot.
AS the barge went down the river the
federal artillery opened fire across it.
Shells could be seen exploding over
federal positions. If the gunners did
any harm at all it was to their own
side.
The Mexican army has no army
service corps. no medical department
to speak of. 1t carries no camp equip-
ment, 40 supplies. Watch a field force
break camp at dawn. First there go
pattering a horde Of women laden with
pots n pans, blankets. sometimes
babies. These are the soldaderas, the
CAM followers, the Commissariat of
the force. That they move as quickly
as they do is a miracle. Whatever
the days march may be, they are al
ways or the camping ground before
the men arrive. They rig up shelters,
they cook tortillas and f~rijoles, they
make coffee. You see them mending
their husbands coats, washing their
shirts, roughly tending flesh wounds.
Without these soldaderas the army
could not move. While President
Huerta was Selling hundreds of men
by night in the City of Mexico and
other cities in order to swell his forces
to 100. 900. he also had women
pressed" to go with the new soldiers
and take care of them. Criadas (maid
servants) were positively afraid to go
out after dark.
The stratagems Of an active general
like Villa, who is the best soldier the
rebels have, are resented. He is not
considered to be playing the game.
In a. club one day a Mexican com
planned to me Of the trick by which
JuareZ was taken as Shameful. Villa
seized the railway, piled his men into
trains, forced the telegraph operators
to announce these as freight trains
and turned his troops out in the city
before the authorities had any suspi-
cion that they were on the way,
"ShamefuI!" my Mexican %acquaint-
Mexican war correspondent, who had
been present at a small fight whether
the federal loss was heavy.
Every" he said, and then, in horri.
fed tone, added: '"They killed a col
oneI!" ,... "s