Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1916-09-22
CARRANZA CONTROLS
TURBULENT MEXICO
Less Than Il, 900 Armed Men Against
Him; Lincoln and Washington
His Idols.

Mexico City.-Venustiano Carran-
"a, first chief of Mexico, affects an
indifference to newspaper criticism.
He contends that publicity, adverse
or favorable is of little concern to
him. "When they r against me I
never read them. When they are
favorable there is no need to read
them. Fate has decreed what the end
shall be. The future of Mexico will
take care of itself. I am just an in
cident. / am where I am because
thus was it ordained. I may think I
am acting on my own initiative, but
what / may do three months or a
year or any time in the future, is all
prearranged."
This statement is peculiarly Car
r~anzaesque. He is a fatalist. What
he has considered himself powerless
to remedy he has put aside as a sub
ject on which thought would be vast
ed was with the adverse criticisms,
and thus it had been with hundreds
of other things during the years when
his success was constantly a matter
of doubt. During these years a
slight turn of fortune, a slight mis-
take or misunderstanding or miscal-
culation on the part of one of his
generals-and the time was not so
very long ago when he had only a
few-might have altered his entire
career and changed the entire destiny
Of his nation.
Today Carranza is practically in
control of all Mexico. According to
his reports there are less than H.
600 men, all told, in arms against
him. A year ago there were $4,000.
He is confident that within the next
six months armed opposition to the
government he has established will
be a thing Of the past.
Mexico is a nation of hero wor-
shippers. That explains in a measure
how such men as Villa succeed. The
Mexicans are an adventurous people,
and the glamor of the bravo outshines
the irregularities of his operations.
Just now Carranza is the idol. And
of all the men who have forged to the
front in Mexico in recent years, al
ways excepting Madero, the first
chief has the ~cleanest hands, in a po-
litical sense. He plods along now
that he sits in the seat of Diaz, just
as he did when his capitol was the
government light house at Vera Cruz.
George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln are the idols Of Carranza.
He has the translation of every book
that has been written about these
two famous Americans, and he is
more familiar with their principles
and their policies han is the aver
age we'll read American.
The charge has often been made
denies this, but adds that he is "pro-
Mexican" Add to his ~veneration
for these two great American char
acters the fact that he sent both of
his own daughters to the United
States to receive their education,
while many Mexicans who could af-
ford to do so were sending their
daughters to Paris instead, and there
appears to be evidence that Carranza
is not really anti-American. His
daughters, who are now about % and
Is years of age respectively, were
sent to st. Louis to school, and both
speak English and seem to under
stand Americans. A number of his
nephews and cousins were also edu-
Gated at American schools.
Carranza is of this sort: he stands
head and shoulders over the little
Mexican laborer who is so often con-
sidered typical of the country's men.
He is six feet tall and weighs about