The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-04-15
BY CHESTER Nj, WRIGHT

president. wilson has accused some
great interests of taking news from
the Mexican border with object of
bringing on war with Mexico. In a.
statement over his own name, a re-
markable procedure, he called upon
the people. to be mighty careful about
what they believed about Mexico and
Mexican "war" news.
This is important. It is what We
have all known. News is being and
has been faxed ruthlessly from the
border. OF course, the president
didn't name any names, but perhaps
he may be driven to that before long.
Now here are some things that he
didn't say, and perhaps they have no
significance. though perhaps they
have:
A representative of the Associated
Press went to Columbus and was fol-
! lowed there by a telegraph operator,
two days before the Columbus riot.
This statement is made good on au-
thority. This man explained that he
| went to Columbus because he ex-
pected that a conference was going
to be held between Villa and some
| American military authorities. Well,
| conference was held, to be sure, but
| the conversation was with rifles and
| machine guns.
| Today in Ell Paso the Hearst Inter-
! national News service has six men at
work. They have a big office and
| their stuff goes out over a leased
wire. One observer in Ell Paso re-
ported that the Hearst men seem to
have orders to send out only "inf1am-
mable stuff
That Hearst wants war is clear to
! all. Just a few days before the
President issued his remarka BILE
statement about news taking Hearst
had printed an editorial in his New
York American in which he called
| Gen. Carranza the First Thief" and
Mexicans in arms.
Two of the most glazing fakes have
/ been those concerning Gen. Obregon
and Gen. Herrera. It was first re-
ported that Obregon had defied
Carranza and locked him up. Even
! the assassination of Carronza was re-
| ported. All Of it was false, and pro-
! badly the person or persons. who
started the stories knew they were
false. Then came the story of the
! alleged desertion of Herrera with
1000 soldiers. A fake again.
The Herrera fake perhaps was the
; most damaging. Herrera's troops
| were in the rear of the advancing
Americans and could have been a
serious menance to them. The fake
stirred up all kinds of apprehension,
| and it damaged the Mexican people
seriously. For one thing it shot the
, exchange of money down. For an
| other thing it resulted in stopping
! for two days the expectation from
New York of ammunition to Carranza
that was already loaded on board
Ship ready to sail. The fake was
we'll timed, The only thing wrong
with it was that it was a vicious lie.
And that is the only thing wrong
| with a. lot of Mexican news these
days. Vicious lies-and probably in
many cases deliberately planned lies
for vicious purpose.
The honor of Americans ought to
demand that the takers be exposed
and hung on that gibbet of which
President Wilson spoke in his cam i.
paign for election.
But let us not rest in the notion
that if the news is all straight we
shall surely be able to avoid war.
The presence of American troops in
Mexico is the greatest provocative of
war. So long as an American soldier
is south of the line we are on pow-
der key. And if the troops are to
stay there until they get Villa they
are likely to have a long sojourn in
the sunny land of manana. That is