New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-01-13
Our Shame in Mexico.


sacrificed to the Administration ignomin-
ious Mexican policy e policy which has
.hattcrod American prestige and made
mockery Of the protection which any self
rcspectinc nation is supposed TO extend to
IFS citizens when they go abroad.
For the last three years Washington
has been teaching Mexican maraudcrs and
also MeNcan officials that no safeguards
surround American citizens or American
property in Mexico. The pusilanlmous
advice has been given to Americans to
leave their property unguarded and to fee
from Mexican soil The State Department
has even offered TO pay the travelling eN-
penses to the border of all such fugitives.
That counsel of timidity was considered
BY the Administration TO be full DIS
charge of its duty-a satisfactory make
shift through which TO escape guarantee
ing our citizens in Mexico any larger meas
ure of security
But the Administration could have dis
charged its real duty only by adopting
genuine policy of protection. by announc-
ing its determination TO compel respect for
American life and property. no matter
what the cost. The Mexican factlonal
leaders and Mexicans generally soon real
led that that was exactly what Washing
ton never intended to do.
Though scores Of Americans have been
murdered. little or nothing has been done
10 deter further murders. American war
vessels lay off Tampico; but the burden OF
rescuing American refugees at that port
was thrust upon the vessels of other ma
tions. Complaints Of these refugees that
they we're forced to depend upon the
good will of foreigners to make good their
escape were resented at Washington as
base ingratitude.
Month by month the position Of Ameri-
cans in Mexico has become more perilous.
Mexican contempt for the fabbiness Of
American diplomacy increased with each
UNPUBLISHED outrage. each backdown from
demands which meant nothing. To-day
Cuban. a Guatemalan. Japanese, even a
Chinaman. is safer in Mexico, is better
protected by respect for foreign flag,
than is an American.
The State Department now tries to
soften the enormity of the assassinations
A in Chihuahua by saying that the victims
u were warned not to 90 into a danger zone
and that they had no assurances or pro-
lection from the Carranza government.
But wherever they went they were still
American citizenship under the pro
lection which American citizenship ought
TO give. If our government had ever
shown itself resolute to defend American
lives in Mexico these sixteen lives would
in all probability never have been lost.
Fear of the consequences would have re-
strained the murderers, whether these lat
ter are to be classed merely as bandits
or as soldiers still operating under the or
ders Of defeated and vengeful partisan
chief. Whatever their motive and what
ever the circumstances under which they
were committed, these murders are the Gull
mination of q succession of insults-the
most defiant expression yet given of MeXi-
can contempt for American authority and
American rights.
Are they to be the last challenge of the
iad flung in our faces? They should be.
We're Congress not in session it might be
impossible to stir the Administration out Of
It's lethargy. The President might continue
20 back and fill, insisting that this country
is too unready to intervene, too proud to
light to avenge its citizens vindicate its
rights and restore its prestige
But Congress and the spirit of the
country expressing itself through Con-
gress have now become live factors In
American policy. The country is weary
of the utter futility which for three years
last has marked our dealings with Mexico.
1t wants a change-a change back to stall
wart Amercanism. to the Americanism
which demands complete respect for our
flag and our citizenship.
We have not received this in Mexico 1t
is time that Mexicans of all classes and
factions should be made to realize that the
United States is no longer willing to toll
crate the murder of its citizens on their
soil any more than it is willing TO toler-
ate similar murder by the commanders Of
German and Austro-Hungarian subma
rines.
Is there any longer any virtue in Amerl-
ca1 citizenship? Mexico doesn't think so,