The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-30
DESCRIBED BY ONE WHO SPENT
TEN YEARS IN MExlco-INTEL-
LIGENT, INDUSTRIOUS, TRUST
WORTHY AND RELIGIOUS.


WORTHY AND RELIGIOUS.
If General Sherman's definition of
'fWar" is true-and no one denies that
there is at least some truth in tive
may reasonably conclude that men will
often be made to resemble demons
amid the scenes of international con-
fi1ct. Once an appeal to the sword
has been made and a premium placed
upon the slaughter of men, the sol
diers who are sent to do the bloody
work will, in the very nature of
things, be led to commit acts which,
in times of peace, would be atrocious
crimes. In their tranquail homes they
may be gentle, hospitable, upright;
but in battle, on the march through
hostile territory, their business is
butchery, and he becomes the best
soldier often, who stiles most effectu-
ally all his humane instincts.
:, We sit at our comfortable breakfast
table and scan the news from the
front. We read a vivid account of
some cold-blooded killing by a band
Of soldiers, and our blood boils at the
brutality of the deed. We forget,
while we sip our coffee, that the re-
porter at the front who sent the story
is there to get news; and he would
be poor man for the place if the
facts of his story lost anything of
their narrowing character in the tell
ing. We forget too, that there may
be fifty circumstances unknown to us
which justify the deed of the soldiers
or mitigate it's criminality. Moreover
we forget that those soldiers are not
slipping coffee at their breakfast tables
each morning. They have been fight
ing, foraging, killing, starving, freez-
ing for weeks and months. In a word,
we forget General Sherman's defni-
ton.
While our soldiers are occupying
Mexican territory, and while the sol
diers of our sister nation, hard
ened and perhaps brutalized by
four years of war, are cam
paigning under circumstances that
would try the metal of Spartan or
a soldier of primitive Rome; and
while our reporters are expected to
make the biggest stories possible from
the incidents taking place in Mexico,
it may be well to reflect a little before
condemning the acts perpetrated by
Mexican soldiers.
But even though we condemn indi-
vidual acts, would it not be narrow
or imprudent mind that would judge
the character Of a people from the
actions of it's campaigning soldiers, as
these are reported in a sensation-seek-
ing press?
And now while the present is big
with potentialities Of war or of peace
between the United States and Mexico,
favorable view of the Mexican char
acter on the part of our people
will certainly tend to promote
the chances of peaceful negotiations
between the two nations. Have our
people placed just estimate upon the
Mexican character? Probably not.
We have read too much about Mexico
from the pens of travellers and tour
lists. Men going down to that region
for a holiday without understanding
the traditions, the ideas, the needs,
the aspirations, the civilization of the
people could not sympathize with
them; could not write sympathetically
of them. This class of writer's has
made the Mexican "greaser" de-
spised term north of the Rio Grande;
and has led too many of us to under
estimate civilization, differing from
our own indeed, but not necessarily
inferior to it, and possessing character.
istics which our people might well be
proud to claim.
A writer who has lived a busy life
in our sister republic for ten years
has given his views of the Mexican
character in letter to the Ell Paso
Morning Times. The letter is too long
to quote in full but the following ex-
tracts deal directly with out subject
the Mexican character.
Defends the Mexicans.
Editor Morning Times:
Dear Sir:
Having but recently become, much
against my will, by means of the con-
sular derrick, homeless refugee after
ten years of residence in Mexico,
suspect that I might speak of condi-
lions there with considerably more
dependability than some with more
limited experience who have had their
say pretty fully and freely.
Naturally the theme is too large for
an ephemeral letter, and I will confine
myself to one special phase, viz:
The disparagement of the Mexican
character so commonly INDUCED in,
which long ago was concentrated in
the typical designation of them as
"greasers," term intended to be dis.
paraging and insulting.
have no brief for the defense OF
the general character Of the Mexican
people, but I want to give my testi.
mony and estimate as to their inner
ent worth as citizens and members
of the human race. In my opinion,
and I hold to the opinion tenaciously,
the Mexican is intelligent, much more
SO than many immigrants admitted
without question into the United
States.
Naturally Industrious.
The Mexican is naturally industri.
Gus. Some say he is not, but we
Ynuct all rnmpmhnr that the normal