Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-09-01
RUIN Of MEXICO
NOW COMP PLETE IN
EVERY De TAIL, IS
EXPERT REPORT
Dr., AItendorff, Who Served the
Army's Intelligence Depart
ment There During War;
Tells Terrible Story.
DISEASE AND BANDITS
WORK DEVASTATION
Cananza Generals Most Sue
CessfuI PIunderers; All of
Them Become MiIlionaireS
From SpoiIS.

tsrEciAL CONSEQUENCES TO MORNING JOURNAL
New York, Aug. 81 -" Mexico has
ceased to exist as a nation. Political
disintegration is complete; econom-
ic decay and social degeneracy are
far advanced and such of the people
as have survived starvation and dis
ease are relapsing into savagery'
said DR.. Paul Bernado Altendorf,
who has lived in Mexico since 1914,
and who operated there as an agent
of the military intelligence depart
ment of the United States during the
twenty months ending April !, 1919.
He is telling of the things he learned
in that stricken land in a series of in
terviews arranged at his request by
the National Association for the Pro-
lection of American Rights in Mexi-
co in the hope that he may arouse
the American people to n realization
of the increasing peril south of the
Rio Grande.
Since 1914 / han been in twenty
two of the twenty-seven states con
stituting the former Mexican repub-
lie, and in most of them in the last
two years, travelling almost continH-
ously on foot, on mule back, in boats
and on the few trains that are still
running" continued DR.. AltendorG.
II travelled as German; for no one
but German is safe in Mexico.
speaking from the fullness of first
hand knowledge thus acquired, it
seems to me joke to call Carranza' $
administration a government. NO
real government exists south OF the
Rio tirande, ercept sLcn authoi,ty 4b
a thug with gun exercises over an
unarmed victim Mexico IL nothing
laore than an agglomeration of an
archist gangs who kill and plunder
with no restraint but their own ca
prices.
All Are Bandits.
"The so-caled rebels are no more
nor less than banditti. To discrimi-
nate between Carranzistas and other
handitti is to make distinction with
out a difference. All alike live by
plunder.
"Of these rebels or banditti there
are 100000 men operating in gangs
of forty to 1000 lnder thirty -sev"n
known leaders of importance who
hunt in definite territories In addl-
ton there is an unknown number OF
smaller fry who operate independent
" at times and again assert allegi-
ance to some larger gang when they
reed protection. .,
"Included in this 100000 banditti
are about $4,000 men who part or
the time claim to be Carranzistas and
who actually do serve under ms pam
ner when expedient.
But this is not all the story car
ranEa's actual, dependable militayr
strength is $1,000 men. These men
are banditti like all other Mexicans
who own a gun. They kill and ROB
lust the same as any so-called febei.
In fact that is the way most or them
get their supplies and their pay
That is also the way they make thelr
officers rich: and in this con"e uoh
II is well to remember that the Ma@-
can army has a higher ratio OF gen
erals and colonies and majors than
any other military organization on
earth. Nearly all the robberles OF
paymasters so frequent in the OIL re-
gion are committed by Carran2lstas'
Proving on the Foreigners.
"The point is that there are lbf wv
armed men preying indlscrlmlnateW
unon natives and foreigners in Mex
leo. The men at the top get the iarg
est share of the swag; make no mis-
take about that. Carranza IS reputed
to have s15,000,000 on deposit IN
chilean banks. His sonin-law, Cen
eraI Aguilar, has suddenly become
worth s4.000.000 Villa has cleaned
up about 1S,OO0.0o0. part of which
he has used to finance his raids ami
to buy such luxuries as three thou
sand dollar bath tubs and other things
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