The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-04
HAVE just ,rayersed Mexico from

r HAVE Just traversed Mexico from
north 10 south and from east to
west, | have been in the camps
of all the leaders. | have seen all
the armies. | have been in Mexico city
and ! have had an opportunity during
ten months of constant travel to dis
cover the real condition of Mexico.
have lived in Mexico for twenty
years ne | nave seen the present rev.
olution in it's various stages: | was in
Mexico city through the stirring days
when Huerta tool the capital and
Madero was killed. l think that |
know the normal and the abnormal life
OF Mexico as well as any nan
| find Mexico to-day from border to
border and from sea to sea a land Of
unspcakable horror. Crimes of every
kind are being perpetrated unchecked.
Bring to mind the atrocities of Bel
GUM and Poland and then imagine
those countries overrun by the Off
scourings Of iails and slums, ard you
have a picture of the one fair land
below the Rio Grande. The record of
~Carranza. Villa md Zapata and their
crews will never be told: IL cannot he
compiled in fun because dead men tell
no tales; 1t ann he told in fun be-
cause it canine be expressed in terms
of decency.
II must not be supposed that Mexico
ts in the midst of n revolution: the
days of revolution have passed. Mex
leo is now merely having it's bones
picked dry and clean by bands of cut
threats. There are no policies and no
principles animating CarranZa, Zapata
or Villa: they care not a whit for
Mexico or h MeXicans. Each leader
has a number of high sounding doc
trines, but they never have been and
never will he used: these principles
are known only To the leaders and not
fully by them, being often formulated
by the publicity bureaus for use in the
United States as occasion demands.
If you ask a soldier why he is fight
ing he will answer, Fol Villa" or it
may be C%arran2a or Zapata. He is
fighting for an individual and he is
fighting for that individual because
he finds that soldering gains him
s2,25 Il day without work, whereas he
formerly might gain ut the most 80
cents a day. Soldering is not n dam
gerous occupation and it gives him n
chance TO ride "A horse n to satisfy
his lower instincts-he can rob. muir
der and destroy to his hearts content.
The soldier fights for the chief who
treats him best; if discipline appears
he deserts to another leader; if he is
captured he enlists under the banner
OF the captor.
Many of these soldiers are crimi-
mails, the army of Mexico has always
been "A branch of the penal depart
ment; criminals were sentenced to a
term in the army instead of TO prison.
Once they were slightly restrained by
their officers, but now there are ofii-
GERS of their own class, equally bent
on plumber.
These soldiers are now tired OF bat
Ties The real fighting Is now being
done by the Yaqui Indians.
The Indians have always loved the
rad II they are brave. They care
nothing for principles; most of them
do not know that Don Porfirio, as
they called President DiaZ, no logger
iIlos. They are fighting because they
Ike TO fight or for money or for some
fantastic reason which has been given
to them.
| saw rachcco, the Zapata Minister
o! War, como into Mexico city n the
mead Of 1000 southern Indians,
Iacheco himself is as u%nlovcly a spc-
Omen as one might find in many days
travel; fiat noscd. thick Tipped, he
trou'het in his saddle, pcering right
ahd left with little, bcady. watcry
eyes. Beside Pacheco rode an cnor-
nous Indian bearing aloft "A silken
TANNER Of the Virgin Mary. h
crew had been enlisted by men who
hdi murdered priests n turned
Churches into stables.
''cn. ohregon owes his recent VIC
,'I'eS solely to his ability, by hook or
.! crook, 10 get iaGui Indians.
IA" men under arms in Mexico to-
IA a' not together number 10000;