Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-22
NEUTRAL MEXTCANS
WITHOUT A COUNTRY
The New Serfdom" for Refugees.
European War Regarded as De-
lightfully Glorious Compared
With the Anarchy in Mexico.

wrilten by an Evening LEpGre stan corre-
spondent who sent to the Mexican border
TO study conditions
fINHERE is no place in Mexico today for
the Intelligent neutral Mexican with con.
structIve ideas. The peace loving, fair
minded Mexieans have been driven into
exile, In hundreds OF cases separated from
their families and compelled to haunt the
border. hoping against hope that their wives
and children have fallen into the hands Of
at least some semi-civilized bandit leader,
They are pitiable lot, these neutral exies,
and 1t Is no wonder that when you meet
them they wiring their hands and pray for
the time when some strong hand will inter-
Vene and save their people from the ever
increasing devastation and desolatlon.
Nor Is 1t any wonder that so many Of them
comment so bitterly upon the "cowardice"
and "seflsh aloofness" of the American peo-
pie During the last year or two the idea
has pervaded all Mexico that this Govern
ment has kept out of Mexico chiefly through
fear. The attitude of all the revolutionary
bands has become distinctly an attitude Of
sneerng insolence and it has been a simple
matter for the leaders i'm all the innumer-
able separate little achievements Of piracy
and page that have been dignihed with
the population with the notion that we have
kept out of Mexico moro through fear Of
the MeNicans than for any other cause
"Pusilanimous Retirement"
The episode at Vera Cruz did not in the
least tend to dispel this carefully nurtured
popular viewpoint. The withdrawal of our
troops was proclaimed in every province as
"puslanimous retirement OF lily-livered
ened every time the warring tribes of rev.
olutionists have met upon our border and
carried on their opera boufte warfare within
view of American troops, who scarcely more
than raised their hands in protest when
fusilades OF bullets crossed the Rio Grande
River and wounded American citizens.
Interview our regular troops the sub
jeCt and you will see some fine examples of
raging impotence Very naturally army
men are not in sympathy with grapejuce
policies or with the "pantalette efficiency
of our Navy Department. When officers and
agents of the various parties in temporary
power cross over the line and derde them
because of their inability to interfere this
does not tend to put them in any better
humor.
Our border patrols have seen the situa-
ton grow from bad to worse; they have seen
line and vanish into the vastness of the
Texas lowlands to seek shelter and food as
they can--often, when they come into the
hands OF INSCRIPTIONS employers, selling
themselves into n new condition OF peonage.
There is not so much of new serfdom' un-
der our flag for the Mexican refugees as
many are led TO believe, for the people of
South Texas have learned within the last
few years to value the cheap labor of the
exiled pcasantry OF Mexico for what 1t is
worth in a raw land that has been held
back from the development of immense re-
sources simply because of the high cost OF
labor. In the vast majority OF cases they
are treated humanely and as generously as
the law of supply and demand dictates
The Submerged Eight-tenths
The crime of non-interventon seems
greater to our border people when they see
how little restraint it is necessary to impose
upon the Submerged SO per cent" of Mex
leans, to maintain them prosperously In sim
pie acts of husbandry. They have given
every possible evidence that they do not
require quite a ruthless hand TO control
them, and it is no wonder that the idea
has become so prevalent that our Admin
istration in Washington could If 1t would
establish a bloodess protectorate in Mexico
lhHt NbNlh give IS'SN w S'''N -
reconstruction.
The task of course, will seem tnsuperable
so long as we accept the exaggerated View of
certain crafty Mexican politicians that to in
teryene we must give battle to armed hosts
greater than our own regular forces But
these armed hosts are showing every day
more and more of their hopeless inefficiency.
There is no longer anything that resembles
a cause to weld them together. The prelim-
inarles to a battle are harder upon the officers
of these so-called revolutionary armies than
the actual battle itself, for the reason that
they never know how many OF their troops
will desert to the other side, or else take it
into their heads TO branch out for themselves
into separate maraudng forces. Just one
battle recently resulted IN the breaking up of
the forces Of one side into five distinct bands
that vanished somewhere in the mesquite to
carry on independent robberies and outrages.
It has been patent for a long while that the
only inducements that will now serve to hold
any OF these groups Of little bad men" to-
gether are the same inducements that pre-
vailed when the Goths and Huns swept away
the beginnings OF civilization in Europe. The
difference i'm Mexico is that they are sweeping
away the remnants OF beginning civilization
in a country that is unbelievably rich in nat
ural resources. 1t is because OF the wealth
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