The Richfield recorder., 1916-11-03

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to Mexico. This Is the letter: "Ur
less Huerta voluntarily and of his ow
!, initiative retires at once from powe
! and abandons every idea of controllfn
the organization of the government
! and the conduct of negotiations, tn
J first magistrate (to-wit, the Presiden
) of the United States) will find himsel
under the necessity of Intervening b
means of an ultimatum."
That is, the government of the Unit
ed States had decided by one metho'
or another to get rid of him. 1t 1
clear. That is my Interpretation o
it, to eliminate completely all assist
ance that Huerta felt he might re
ceive from foreign sources. And th'
President of this great Republic say
to a de-facto President OF sister Re
public in power-he sends a secre
emissary, or private emissary, with
letter to that de-facto President tell
ing him he must get out Is that in
tervention? If not, what is 1T? Is II
interfering with the internal affairs OF
Mexico? What had Huerta done tc
us? Huerta, during his reign in Mexi-
CO. never permitted an American c1t1-
zen within the territory over which he
had jurisdiction to be injured. No
American citizen had suffered loss of
life or property within the rs per cent
of territory over which the old Indian
held power. What had America,
therefore, to do towards cutting off his
resources? He had eighty thousand
soldiers at his command. He had con-
tracted for loan of one hundred mil
lions of dollars from France to help
him carry his government to peace
and order. He had been recognized by
26 nations of the earth Tell me upon
what theory we could say to this old
Indian, you must get out. And am
mistaken?
We come to the Vera Cruz incident
came before the Congress and stated
that some soldiers had been arrested
at Tampico. which was true, and by
reason of the insult to the American
flag the admiral in charge of the fleet
had demanded a salute of the flag
He asked permission in his message,
which ! have here, to use the army
and navy of the United States, to do
what? Don't misunderstood me. He
asked the use of the army and navy
of the United States to enforce sa
lutte of the flag Very well and good.
That power was given him. We went
to Vera Cruz, expended ten millions
of dollars. lost nineteen American citi-
zens, and killed 900 Mexicans, and
portion of the great sea port of Vera
Cruz. Did we go there to enforce
salute of the flag?
Far be it from me to charge, and
don't misunderstood me, the honor or
veracity upon the part of the President
when he came before Congress.
simply recite the facts, but the history
says we didn't go there to enforce a
salute of the flag. We went there to
carry out this letter which he had en-
trusted to John Lind to try to remove
this de-facto President of Mexico from
his seat. Rather strong statement for
one to make. Then let me sustain 1t
by a source which you will not gain
say Franklin K. Lane is one of the
able men connected with this admins
tration, a man to whom / pay the
tribute of my highest respect, and do
it sincerely; he wrote a letter few
days ago to the New York World, and
over his signature he said-perhaps |
had better read the Presidents mes |
sage first This is the message to Con- |
gress: 81, therefore, feel it my duty
to sustain Admiral Mayo in the whole
Of the demand to insist that the flag
Of the United States should be salut-
ed, ETC., etc." and asking for the use
Of the army and navy. Would you
have understood that for the purpose
IF enforcing the salute of the flag, but
we said nothing of the salute of the
lag when we got there. We sailed in
% the harbor of Vera Cruz unloading
)ur deadly fire upon the people of
Mexico as we sailed into the harbor.
Now what did Secretary Lane say we
vent there for, in his letter? 1--WE
lidn't go to Vera Cruz to force Huerta
o salute the flag We did go there
O show Mexico that we were in earn
st in our demand that Huerta must
70, and he did 60" says Lane, be
ore we left In other words, the
lrmy and navy of the United States
vas used to remove the de-facto Pres
O which he had been accredited.
1t has been said that he was
connected with the murder of Ma
dero. 1 do not know. Nobody
knows. 1t might have been SO,
but Is that any reason why we
had to oversee Mexico?
When the President of Peru as
sassinated his predecessors and
walked iTto his place and became
President, we recognized him in
a very short time.
This administration, when the
present President of Hayti as
sassinated the President of Hayd
and became his successor through
blood, recognized him as Presi-
dent. The government of the
United States can not oversee the
method by which all the Presi-
dents of Central America become
Presidents, and If we did we would
be at war all the time.
But we went to Vera Cruz as
l say, and we killed 300 MexicaDs.
wounded 83 of our own men, and
lost 49,. Was that peace? What
do you suppose the Mexicans
thought 1t was? Naughter.) We
waged war against Spain, and lost
a less number than we lost in
waging peace with Mexico. Gap
plause.)
They say to you that our honor i
ed President has kept us out of
war. Suppose we had gone to
Germany and fired our shot and +
shell into the vitals of the Ger
man citizens. Suppose we had
turned our cannons and our ships
upon a German port, it would
have been war. Suppose we had
gone to England and shot into
Liverpool and so much as injured
a single citizen of England, it
would have been war. The only
reason it was not war with Mexi-
co was because this torn, distract
ed and demoralized little nation
was unable to respond. Had she
had an army and navy such as