New Britain herald., 1916-09-02

1 long as there was no constituted power in Mexico which was in a | position to check them. We could not | act directly in that matter ourselves without denying Mexicans the right 1 to any revolution at all which dis turbed us and making the emancipa- tfon of her own people await our own | interest and convenience.
 For it Is their emancipation that 1 they are seeking-blindly, it may be,
 and as yet Intellectually, but with pro- found and passionate purpose and within their unquestionable, right apply what true American principle you wilI,-any principle that an 1 American would publicly avow. The 1 people of Mexico have not been suf- fered to own their own country or direct their own institutions. Out siders, men out of other nations and with interests too often alien to their own, have. dictated what their privi- leges and opportunities should be and who should control their land, their lives, and their resources,-some of them Americans, pressing for things they could never have got in their own country. The Mexican people are entitled to attempt their liberty from such influences; and so long as l have anything to do with the action or our great government 1 shall do everything in my power to prevent anyone standing in their way. l know that this is hard for some persons to understand; but 1t is not hard for the plain people of the United States to understand. It is hard doctrine only for those who wish to get something for them selves out of Mexico. There are men, and noble women, too, not 8 few, of our own people, thank God! whose fortunes are invested in great properties in Mexico who yet see the case with true vision and assess it's issues with true American feeling The rest can be left for the present out of the reckoning until this en- slaved people has had it's day of struggle towards the light. I have heard no one who was free from such influences propose interference by the United States with the internal affairs of Mexico. Certainly no friend of the Mexican people has proposed it.
 The people of the United States are capable of great sympathies and a noble pity in dealing with problems of this kind. As their spokesman and representative, I have tried to act In the spirit they would wish me to show. The people of Mexico are striving for the rights that are fun damental to life and happiness fifteen million oppressed men, over nurdened women, and pitiful children in virtual bondage in their own home o1 fertile lands and inexhaustible treasure! Some of the leaders of the revolution may often have been mis- tcly -io1n fc1, hut hn revolution itself was inevitable and is right. The unspeakable Huerta be- trayed the very comrades he served, tTaitOrOusly overthrow the govern ment of which he was a trusted part, jmpudently spoke for the very forces that had driven his people to the re- bellion with which he had pretendcd' 10 sympathze The men who over came him and drove him out repre- sent at least the fierce passion of re- construction which lies at the vorv heart of liberty; and so long they represent, however imperfectly, such q struggle for delivorance, I am ready to serve their ends when I can. So long as the power of recognition rests with me the government of the United States will refuse to extend the hand of welcome to any one who ob
  treachery and violence. No per
 nanency can be given the affairs of any republic by title based upon in
 trigue and assassination. I declared that to the policy of this administra- ton within three weeks after I as
 stunned the presidency. I here again VOW it. I am more interested in the fortunes of oppressed men and pitiful 1 women and children than in any 1 property rights whatever. Mistakes | I have no doubt made in this perpleX- | ing business, but not in purpose or 1 object.
 More Is involved than the immedi-
 tons of the United States with a dis
 1ressed and distracted people,. All 1 America looks on. Test is now being i made of us whether we be sincere >l~vers of popular liberty or not and
 are indeed to be trusted to respect
 national sovereignty among our | weaker neighbors. We have under
 taken these many years to play big
 brother to the republics of this hemis- 1 phere. This is the day of our test
 whether we mean or have ever meant
 to play that part for our own benefit
 wholly or also for theirs Upon the
 outcome of that test (its outcome in
 their minds, not in ours) depends
 every relationship of the United
 States with Latin America, whether
 in politics or in commerce and en-
 terprise. These are great issues and
 lie at the heart of the gravest tasks
 of the future, tasks both economic
 and political and very intimately in
 wrought with many of the most vital
 of the new issues of the politics of the
 world. The republics of America
 have in the last three years been
 drawing together in new spirit of | accommodation, mutual understand