Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-09-01

he admits that we have been at war; for
example. on May 11th. 1914. in an address
in Brooklyn lin which. by the way. he IN
effect claimed sympathy on the ground
that his feelings had been as much lacer
ated by sneers as the bodies OF the deao
men by bullets), he said that the marines
had been engaged in a war of service
A war Of service to whom or what? Ger
tainly mot to the United States; nor to
Mexico; nor to humanity at large. was
it to Mr.. Wilson?
AS it is with war so it is with Inter
vention" President Wilson has again
and again said he would not intervene"
in Mexico. AS a matter of fact he has
intervened continuously. On January sth,
1915, he announced that the Mexicans had
the right to spill blood" to spill as
much blood as they pleased. without in
reference. The fact that the blood they
were spilling included the blood OF Ameri-
can citizens, both soldiers and Civilians
and among them women and children
evidently did not weigh with him. on
December 10th. 1915, he said that 1t was
None of our business what the Mexlcans
did with their government, and SO iohs
as have the power to prevent It noooay
shall butt-in to alter 1t for them" Yet
at that very time he had been putting
in for two years. and he has been
"butting-in" ever since; and he has
avowed that he wished to alter 1t for
them in all kinds Of ways, from land
tenures up and down. But as he never
followed any policy of either interven-
ton or non-intervention with any resoiu-
tion-always yielding at the critical mo-
ment to some bandit chief of whom he
became fearful-both his spasms OF inter-
vention and his spasms OF non-lnterVeh-
ton have alike been entirely futile. IN
August, 1919, he sent special envoy 10
Mexico to tell Huerta he would not recog-
nize him. He announced this himself in
a note in October. and on December zno
he announced he would not deal with the
Huerta Government. This was interVen-
tion and nothing else: it was such IN
tervention as If in 1877 some European
government had declined to recognize
Hayes as President, and insisted upon
the seating of Tilden. Mr.. Wilson inter-
vened when he backed Villa against
Huerta. He intervened when he turned
against Villa, and recognized Carranza'
Wilson's Warning Meant Nothing.
At one time Mr.. Wilson's policy OF in
tervention produced such unhappy results
that on June End, 1915, he issued formai
warning to the Mexican factions In whlch
he said that Mexico is apparently no
nearer Solution Of her tragical troubles
than she was when the revolution was
first kindled. She has been swept by civil
war as If by fire. Her crops are de-
stroyed, her cattle confiscated, her people
flee to the mountains to escape being
drawn into unavaling bloodshed, and no
man seems to see or lead the way to
peace and settled order. There is no
proper protection either for her own citi-
zens or for the citizens of other nations
resident and at work within her territory.
Mexico is starving and without govern
ment' A delightful picture Of the effects
of Mr.. Wilson's policy, by the way! He
therefore tells Mexico that unless within
a very short time" the Mexican leaders
get together for the relief and redemption
of their PROSTATE country the United
States will be constrained to decide what
means should be employed" to deal with
the situation. But as usual with Mr..
Wilson, this solemn warning meant pre-
cisely and exactly nothing. and the Car
ranzistas and Villistas and the rest knew
that it meant precisely nothing. They
knew that Mr.. Wilson would either not
back up his words by deeds at all or else
that he would back them up so feebly
that by a sufficient show Of resistance he
could be forced to abandon his purpose.
Some of the defenders of Mr.. Wilson in
answer to Mr.. Hughes merciless indict-
ment of Mr.. Wilson's course, have sought
to justify Mr.. Wilson by attempting to
turn the whole issue on the character of
Huerta, who was the de facto President
when Mr.. Wilson became President of the
United States. They ask Mr.. Hughes.
Would you have recognized Huerta?''
The answer is that any one of several
courses could have been adopted, provid-
ed only that the course adopted had been
followed with resolution and with full
acceptance Of the responsibility involved.
There was much to be said in favor of
the policy of recognizing Huerta and
avoiding Intervention. There was also
much to be said in favor Of the policy OF
refusing to recognize Huerta, which was
Intervention, and then Of fully accepting
the responsibility implied in Intervention.
But there is nothing to be said in favor
of wobbing between the two policies.
and neither recognizing Huerta nor ac-
cepting the responsibility for the chaos
caused by failure to recognize him. Yet
this was the course Mr.. Wilson followed.
There was no excuse for the recognition
of Carranza in view of Mr.. Wilson's fail
ure to recognize Huerta. All the objec-
tions to Huerta applied with greater
force to Carranza. Mr.. Wilson's apollo
gists say that Huerta was the murderer
of Mexicans. But Mr.. Wilson himself, as
quoted above, has shown that Carranza
was the murderer of Americans. There
fore Mr.. Wilson treats the murder of
Mexcans as a bar to recognition; but not
the murder of both Americans and Mexi-
cans. And now. having condoned the re-
peated murders Of Americans by the Car
ranzistas, and having abased himself be-
fore Carranza, and having aided in plac-
ing Carranza in power. what Is Mr.. Viii
sons reward? and who pays It? The re-
ward is that Mr.. Wilson has to place
10000 troops on the border to partially
prevent the raids and murders that his
friend Mr.. Carranza will not or cannot
prevent; and the payment is made by the