The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1915-03-04
FOR NAR-R|ODEN COUNTRY
BRIGHTER THAN MOST AMERICANS
REALIZE; PEACE SOON TO REIGN
Ideals Madero reforms that will
Of ally

The outlook in Mexico at present
Is really encouraging, though the con-
fusion attendant upon military opera.
lions has served to make this country
consider the situation more dark than
ever before. All the patriotic ele-
ments in Mexico are rallying to Car
ranza's standard. Villa with his own
division of the army is lighting the
rest of the nation and an indication
of what his movement really signifies
is the fact that he has invited all the
old Federal army officers against
whom the Madero revolution and its
successor that drove Huerta from pow
er was waged, to join him.
World conditions are such that no
government in Mexico can exist with
out the friendship of this country and
without its moral and financial help.
In a sense then, Americans are in duty
bound to look upon the situation in
Mexico from an intelligent and a sym
pathetic angle.
Carranza Misunderstood.
Carranza has been grossly misun-
derstood in this country. He is a
man of probity, clean living and in
tense patriotism. He is not wealthy
man. He has reared his family in
comfort, having made his living from
the raising of cattle. He himself has
visited the United States many times.
He has had his family educated in
this country. Every man whom he
has selected to become a member of
his Cabinet he has first sent to this
country to become acquainted with the
American idea, system and plan OF
conducting the office he is about to as
sumo.
Carranza is unmilitary. educated,
having taken law degree, intensely
Mexican, and intellectually desir-
GUS of helping the downtrodden peon
to obtain This chance in life" Villa
! contrastingly is uneducated. ignorant,
| brutal, unrestrained in his passions.
totally unappreciative of the needs of
his country and is simply riding his
vanity to what he hopes will be the
dictatorship of Mexico.
| Illustrative of the character Of the
two men is the fact that Carranza, not
even to gain valuable political ends,
would stultify himself to the extent of
currying favor with the Washington
administration as long as our troops
were at Vera Cruz. His feelings OF
friendship he kept locked in his heart
until the time he deemed proper to
express them. Villa, on the other
hand. has been one thing to this
country and another to Mexico. He
has taken every occasion to slObber.
ingly express his regard and friend.
ship for this country and the admin
istration, while in Mexico he has at
tempted to gain recruits for his army
by demagogically declaring that the
United States intends to annex Mexico
and that he in the role of his country's
savior calls upon the ex-Federals to
join him in resisting the invasion that
he announces soon is to come. Villa
is forced to make this explanation to
his own troops because otherwise they
would keenly resent the presence Of
these Huertistas in their ranks.
Carranza and the Constitutionalist
cause has been assailed in this coun-
try as being not only Anti-Catholic.
but Anti-Religious. The true facts
show both these accusations to be
false The Constituencies cause is
opposed to any church taking part in
the politics of the country and is ve-
hemently opposed to it's aligning itself
with the reactionaries and privileged
classes, as unfortunately the Catholic
church has done since the colonization
of Mexico by the Spaniard.
Rafael Zuberan Capmany, former
agent of the Constituencies in
Washington. and now minister of the
interior in Carranza's Cabinet. stated
in the following manner the Constitu-
tionalists' position in this respect:
, Church Question.
'Let the Catholics of America un.
derstand that the occurrences which
have happened and are explainable
: under the present disturbed condi-
: tons, do not, nor cannot constitute a
part of the program of the Constitu.
? tionalists who are pledged to the prin-
ciple of the separation of the State
: and church and are firm believers in
/ the principle of religious liberty"
One of the main reasons that has
, prevented better feeling of cordial.
t ity existing between Mexico and this
country has been the fact that the
i ordinary American looks upon all
5 Mexicans as ''greasers" and affects an
> air of superiority towards the nation
= that has bred the worst of understand
ing between the two countries. The
D lower class of Mexicans. commonly
t called the "peon," is undoubtedly ig
n norant and ill-kempt. but he has ster
@ ling virtues of honesty and a genuine
V love of his country that deserves re-
n spect.
g President Wilson by his just atti
tude towards Mexico has wiped Out
the old memories that country has
l. held of us since the Mexican war
d when we took from it the greater por
J. ton Of it's territory. Mexicans now
(: universally recognize that the only
e ambition this country has in regard
g to Mexico is to be Of help and assist-