Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-04-24


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
the war to an end. They do not take
soldering seriously.
The Mexican army has no army SER
vice corps, no medical department to
speak Of 1t carries no camp equipment
no supplies. Watch a field force break
camp at dawn. First there go patter-
ing off horde of women laden with
pots and pans, blankets, sometimes
babies. These are the soldaderas, the
camp followers, the comissariat or the
force That they move as quickly as
they do is a miracle. Whatever the
days march may be they are always on
the camping ground before the men
arrive They rig up shelters, they cook
tortillaS and frijoles (maiZe cake and
beans), they make coffee. You see them
mending their husbands coats, wash
ing their shirts, roughly tending flesh
wounds. Without these soldaderas the
army could not move. While President
Huerta was seizing hundreds Of men by
night in Mexico CITY and other cities in
order to swell his forces to hundred
thousand he also had women pressed"
to go with the new soldiers and take
care of them Criadas (maid servants)
were positively afraid to be out after
dark.
This extraordinary system accounts
for the immobility of the federal
troops. Compared with the rebels they
are leaden footed. They cling to the
railways and to the box cars, in which
they live with some comfort. Man for
man, so far as have seen, the revolto-
ses are better men, and they are all
mounted. The way to deal with them
would be to send out flying columns,
to keep them moving, which they
would dislike exceedingly, and to exc
cute sweeping movements over a large
area until they were rounded up into
a place where they could be effectively
shelled. Nothing Of this kind is at
tempted. The endeavor of each side is
in most cases to avoid the other A
train full of soldiers went out Of Tam
pico to reconnoitre. 1t sighted train
full of rebels. Each train went back!
The strategems 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 Mexican complain
ed to me Of the trick with which Juarez
was taken as shameful" Villa seized
the railway, piled his men into trains,
forced the telegraph operators to an
nounce these as freight trains. and
turned his troops out in the city before
the authorities had any suspicion that
they were on the way. Shameful!
my Mexican acquaintance declared.
Another day l asked a Mexican war
correspondent who had been present at
a small fight whether the federal loss
was heavy. Very" he said, and then
in a Mortified tone added, they killed
a colonel"
Against such an army as this any
United States eXpedtionary force
would have in pitched battles an un-
pleasantly easy task. have seen some
thing of the cavalry training, which is
very like mounted infantry training, Of
the United States army; it is very good
indeed believe the war department at
Washington reckonS that 100000 men
would be required for a Mexican eXpe-
dition. That would be for the policing
of the country. The probable loss of
men is estimated al $4,000, and the cost
of a campaign at G400,000 day. By
far the greater part Of such a force
as this would be members of the Ma
tional guard and volunteers, who would
have to be put through some training
before they could take the field. The
regular army numbers 66,O0O-thirty
regiments of infantry and fifteen of
cavalry OF these eleven infantry regi-
ments and two of cavalry are in the
Philippines. There seems to be little
doubt that if the president called for
men enough would answer, and there
is no doubt at all that they would have
no difficulty in winning battles and
capturing towns.
The difficulty would lie in suppress
ing guerrilla warfare among the noun
tains, in the jungles, wherever the
country offered good cover for snip
ing" and sudden attacks upon small
detachments. 1t would be necessary to
put in force a measure like the crimes
act in Land League Ireland, which
would make it a serious and if neces-
sary capital offense, to possess arms.
This would mean that the United
States would have to govern Mexico
for an indefinite period. 1t would mean
annexation; and that the United States
does not desire or intend to annex Mex
leo has been authoritatively declared
Where, then, is the remedy? The only
hope lies in the creation of a Mexican
army capable of keeping order. If no
Mexican ruler is equal to this task
then some one else must do. That some
one should clearly be the United
States.