Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1916-03-19
ALVARA ObREGON REAL FORCE IN
 MEXICO TODAY
Power of Soldier Who Hates Americans Greater Than
 CarranZa'S,

Washington, March 1S-While Ven
 ustlano Carranza is de facto presiden
 of Mexico and recogn zed as first
 chief in most states, he is not h;ii-
 tary figure. And it is military fo"ce that counts in disorderly. briyand- i ridden Mexico. The strongest man ] ir Mexico today is the .)ne-armcH se',
 eral, Alvaro Obregon, and f the UEit- ed States now mee;s opposition in punishing Villa it will lave Obre goa
 to fear and not Carranza.
 It was Francisco Villa, tigh;n for 1 Carranza. who knocked out Hucr;a: and it was Obregon. fighting for car ! ranza, who later defeated villa and scattered his forces.
 Obregon has all along professed his affection and loyalty to the fist chief. But the temptat on to l.;m to seize the power in name he already has in fact must be oreat. Rumors that he is about to surplant CarranZa are plausible to those who have fol- i lowed Mexican affairs closely.
 Obregon is an intense patriot and with this characteristic h. combines typically Mexican ant pa'hv 70 for eigners. especially Spsniar,ls and Americans. He protested many times against the American occupation of Vera Cruz and was in favor of an attack lpon the Ame rican expedition there. He refused to receive the med!aling Of fees of the Braz lian minister in %o vember, 1914. when he had qlar!e led with Villa, if the envoy were m any .>r +ho .t States. He spoke of the unjust ac- ton of Washington in occupying Vera Cruz and affronting the honor tf the Mexican nation" Bitterly Hates Americans.
 His hatred for Americans and for gners was shown very ola.a'J whsn he entered Mexico City January 29. 1915. and established his headluar- ters there. The day aft7r he :n cred water supply was cut off. The prize of fcodstuffs rose to eNxorbi ant fig ures because Obregon endeav2red in every way to prevent the !ntroduc- ton of food into the city. Not only did he refuse the city council raii- way cars for transporting such food stocks as were available, but he or- dered his outposts to confiscate such as were brought in.
 There is abundant evidence tEdt this inhuman conduct was part Of a deliberate campaign to starve thf population into enlisting in ObregcE's army. Then he decreed an eXtrac: dinary r.ax of 3O,000,000 pesos against the foreign merchants "to relieve the desperate situation of the poor" and x1oolorod that if fhoro up-ro Otc and footing he would make no effort to
 stop them.
 When the powers asked the United States to use it's influence with Obre- gon to force him to rescind his special tax decree, he said:
 "One man during thirty years of la mentable rule attempted to convert Mexico into being the mother of for eigners and the stepfather of MeXi- cans. Foreigners and Mexicans should be kept on the same plane and they should be measured by standards o!f morality. not by standards of wealth or nationality, Mexico, the true revolution has just begun"
 General Obregon's soldiers are de- voted to him. He has always been the first to run into danger and has led his men many times in fierce bat ties. In that way he lost his right arm at the battle Of LeOn, at which he defeated Villa early last June.
 There were reports in Washington last September that Obregon was be- hind the threatening attitude of ahe Mexicans along the Rio Grande bor- der, and it was thought at the time that there was serious danger of an invasion of southeast Texas by Car ranzista soldiers. Obregon at that time had from 15,0O0 to 10000 soldiers in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.