American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1916-10-05
FRIENDLY CARRANZASTA
SHOOTS IDAHO SOLDIER
One More Outrage For Which Mexico Will Be Held
to "Strict Accountability"

was SuOC dIu IIOuoly WOullucu q u L .OU ~. IL. SuIlOd
by a Mexican soldier who fired from a position in
front of the bank of Sonora on the Mexican side.
Captain Wilson had just checked his trunk to
Twin Falls, Ida, where he was going on a 30-day fur
Tough, and was leaving the baggage room when the
bali struck him in the rear of the left thigh, inflict-
ing a bad wound. He was rushed to the base hospi-
tai, where he is resting easily, under the care of Cap
tain Pittenger and Major Conant.
Excitement is at fever heat among the guard regi-
ment here. The guard on the border was immedi-
ately strengthened, Sentries being but so feet apart.
This is the first instance during the present border
trouble of an American officer being shot on Amer
lean soil, and army officials here predict serious
complications.
The men of the Second Idaho are thoroughly
aroused, as Captain Wilson is a great favorite among
them. For a while it threatened to become serious
and but for the prompt and forceful handling of the
situation by Captain Male of the Twelfth United
States infantry, the officer of the day, summary
vengeance would have been taken on the Mexicans
in American Nogales.
The men of the Second Idaho infantry, led by two
n~on-commiSSiOned officers who planned the affair,
were in an ugly mood, and shortly before 9 o'clock
the first affray started in which two MeXicans were
badly handled a hundred feet from the border. The
beaten MeXicans went across to NOgales, Sonora,
and there, an hour later, a umbero of truck drivers
and civilians were set upon by Mexicans and after
being badly beaten up, were escorted to the line at
the point of guns.
The Idahoans, reinforced by men of the Second
Connecticut, then formed a line across Morley ave-
nue. and moving towards the border, driving al
Mexicans before them. Fifty armed civilians at this
point Joined the mob and in another five minutes
would have been across the border. Many soldiers
were armed with pistols and. serious trouble would
have ensued, it is believed, had not Captain Male
rushed a strong guard to the Scene.-Speclal lis
patch to the Boise Statesman.
Commenting on the above the Statesman said:
The shooting occurred shortly after the noon hour,
at 80 o'clock Sunday afternoon to be exact. Inc
Statesman correspondent was able TO get a SNORT
account of the affair on the wires, and the trSt news
of the shooting reached this city soon after SIX
o'clock in the evening.
At Nogales there are newspaper correspondents
from all over the country. Many thousands OF sol
diers of the militia and of the regular army are
there. and the Associated Press is well represented.
The Statesman assumed that the Associated Press
would carry a full account OF the affair, but up TO
nine o'clock at night no word came over TINS news
papers special leased wire.
Repeated inquiries for corrOboratlon and Tor
further details were then sent to the Associated
Press bv The Statesman, but so close apparently was
the military censorship at Nogales that no word OF
the affair was obtafnable from that point though the
shooting occurred at so public a place as the rail-
road station.
Finally. at about II o'clock at night, the Assoclat-
ed Press asked The Statesman to supply the news
papers of the country with particulars, and TINS was
done from Boise. 1t was not until well a1ter MD
NIGHT that a dispatch was released for the Assoc1at-
ed Press wires from NogaleS, and the probabilities
are that but for the good work of The Statesmans
correspondent at the border, not a single newspaper
in the United States would have had news OF the
outrage in it's Monday morning issue.
AT 3 o'clock Monday morning an additional eighty
five words arrived at Boise from Nogales giving TWO
different versions of the affair. =
These facts point toward a military censorship OF
news of which the American people know nothing,
and tend to confirm unpleasant rumors which have
been growing more and more frequent that condl-
tions along the border are vastly worse, and outrages
much more frequent, than the American people re-
alize.
We are not at war, and military expediency can
not be urged in defense of Withholding news OF ac-
tns, border conditions. Is it then for political ex-
pediencv that the soft pedal is being used?