The labor standard., 1919-09-01
REBELS NOW RULE
 HALF OF MEXICO
Official Information Shows Car
 ranza Barely CIings to Con- i troI Over Rest.
HAS ONLY 6O,ooO TROOPS
President Is Too Weak to Keep Order as Bandits Harass Whole Country -lndustry Snuffed Out and
 Morale at Low Ebb.

New York.-The Mexican problem was never more troublesome. Condi- tions in that revolution-racked land were never more chaotic than they are today. CarranZa now controls little more than one-half of Mexican terri tory and his hold on that is not at all secure. Opposed to him are six organ ized rebel organizations, not including the Sonora Yaquis, while everywhere his authority is hampered and his troops harassed by organized ban ditry.
 Bearing upon actual conditions in Mexico, the New York Times has come into possession of certain information, now in the official possession of the United States government. Verifca- tfon of these statements which follow is to be found in the archives of the government in Washington.
 Carranza has officially claimed that he is supported by regular army of 10000 we'll disciplined and well equipped troops. This statement is not borne out by the facts in the case, and the truth of the matter is that his armed forces number not more than 6O,O0O officers and enlisted men, who are poorly equipped, whose morale is at low ebb, yet upon whose loyalty de- pends Carranza's sway over a people who number more than 115,000,0OO.
 Today the Coahuila "chieftain'' is ex- ercising authority In those parts of Mexico not under rebel or bandit domination as a dictator and through the promulgation of executive decrees. Of the great American border-line Car ranza Is in control of not much more than one-third, while the whole of southern Mexico Is severed from "fed- eral contror' by stretch of rebel-con- trolled territory that on the Atlantic extends from the rich oil lands of Tam pico almost to the City of Vera Cruz, and on the Pacific by the entire coast line of the great state of Oaxaca. Lower California has become to all in- tents and purposes independent of the government that sits in Mexico City.
 Three General Divisions
 The contending forces in Mexico may be referred to under three gen. eral heads. They are:
 First-The federal or Carranzista forcee. fS s@
 SecoHd-The rebel forces led by Felipe Angeles, Francisco Villa, Guill- ermo Meixuerio, full-blooded Zapotec Indian, and by many well-informed ob- servers considered the ablest and most trustworthy leader in Mexico; Felix .Diaz, Manuel Pelaez, who dominates the Tampico and adjacent oil. fields i; the Zapatistas, still, despite Carranza affirmation, a power in that part of Mexico of which the state of Morelos Is the center; General Cantu, governor of the state of Lower California, and the organized Yaqui Indian forces of the western part of the border state of Sonora.
 Third-The bandits who, in small groups, are operating everywhere in Mexico.
 As to the first or federal forces SUD- porting CarranZa, it is, as already pointed out, the official claim of the present Mexican, or Carranza, govern ment, that this force numbers 10000 men. It is conscript army to a great extent and it is small and ineffi- cient for two reasons, the first being Carranza's inability to enforce con- scription, and the second the fact that he is unable properly to equip, train, or maintain necessary discipline.
 Owing to these two conditions, over which Carranza appears to have no control, the federal army of Mexico is today at it's maximum strength. It is an army poorly organized and poorly equipped. Of this army large pro- portion is held in or near Mexico City, leaving the remainder, numbering less than full division, according to the American organization, to guard and maintain supremacy in the states of Nuevo Leon, eastern Coahuila, south ern Durango, Hildago, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Michoacan, Jalisco, Topic, Zacatecas, Guerrero, Colima, Chiapas, Campeachy, Yucatan, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, and the east ern or Atlantic edge of the state of Vera Cruz, which territory on paper re- mains under federal control.
 The big transcontinental stretch of rebel-controlled territory, which aver ages mere than 100 miles in width, and which forms an unbroken barrier from ocean to ocean, completely separates the federal-controlled states of the scuth-Chiapas, Campeachy, Yucatan, Tabasco, part of Vera Cruz and Quin- tana Roo-from the states or parts of states over which Carranza still holds sway in the north.
 Villa Forces Strongest.
 Of the organized opposition groups which are seeking to overthrow Car ranza, the most powerful is that which is operating in Chihuahua and neigh boring states under Angeles and Villa. The Villistas, as this force is popu- 1arly known, is not the unorganized, poorly equipped, and undisciplined force that great many people in this country think it is. It is, on the other hand, probably the best organized and equipped military organization in Mex leo. It numbers 10000 men command ed by Angeles, the French trained