The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

be exploited by foreign princes passed away with MaximiIian is the view of ar American publicist, who also holds for the benefit of the United States must soon go by the boards, if it has not already gone.
 The smoke has cleared away from the European battlefields but the signing of the armistice did not stop l the debate over the League of Nations in Congress any more than it quieted our volatile friends below the Rio Grande, for Mexico is still running true to her history by being in a state of abnormal disorder.
 Without going into the merits of the case in regard to the Senate's action in delaying the signing of the peace
 treaty and thereby embarrassing the administrati ton. yet my sympathies go out to President Wilson in his sick
 room beset not only by the indisposi-
 ton which grips him physically but worried by the great and perplexing problems which face the nation. I rather think that the public will resent the invasion of his privacy by Senator Fall, and I read with pleasure
 the strictures made on the visit by Hugh Roberts in The Age-Herald on Tuesday morning. It was a scathing exposure of desire to force sthe hand of the President even at the risk sof imperiiing his health, under the pfea
 of the urgency of the situation in | Mexico, which was being handled by Secretary Lansing.
 1 "The Mexican problem is no new thing. for we have had it from the day l on which we acquired from Mexico the
 Pacific coast. It would seem from
 memoranda submitted by Senator Fall
 that he is fearful that Carranza will execute a coup with the aid of the I. ". w. and foreign aid and retake Californit, New Mexico and Texas
 Being used for political effect, it is | a joke. for no one believes that it is | anything more than a silly canard
 trumped up for purpose.
 | What Is the trouble with Mexico? The country is suffering from a chronic case of revolutionitis. It's a
 fertile field for the student of revo-
 lutions Since the establishment of
 the republic in 1891, to 1868, more than
 50 rulers attempted the government
 of Mexico. This does not include any
 Of the many territorial uprisings, but l is limited to those who sought to rule from Mexico City. Yet here is the weak i spot in governing, for Mexico is too
 large and too backward a territory to
 be handled legislative activity from
 one city.
 Owing to the lack of transporta tion facilities and the low average of in
 telligence of the peons in the distant provinces, of late. especially since the
 overthrow of Diaz, who himself never I really ruled the whole of it. especially l in the north, revolutions start and get
 under way before they can he reached
 or dealt with by the central authori-
 ties This is one reason why Villa has
 been able to carry on his depredations almost with impunity. It has been said l that the average Mexican looks on a
 revolution as sporty lark One who went to study the outlook in Mexico returned and reported that the United States can never take it's
 proper attitude in cooperative democ- l sc4a two popular. yet absolutely false, inn pressions of Mexico are removed, these popular fallacies being: First, that the
 natural wealth of Mexico has furnished
 a base for contending business inter
 ests from the United States to pro- mote quarrels. Second. that the land
 question is at the bottom of the Mexi-
 can trouble"
 had heard this charged so much of
 late that1I had grown to credit it as
 being true, but since have been look ing more carefully into the matter by
 studying the history of Mexico and
 reading the more recent works of men who went down to find out for them
 selves the cause for Mexican unrest
 confess that my viewpoint has under
 gone considerable change, and I. no longer subscribe to the belief that American business organizations in or der to exploit Mexico are fomenting trouble in order to get America to in-
 tervene or declare war against her
 southern neighbor.
 have been converted to the fact
 that the Mexican peon is not thirsting for land, and that the auieting of Mexi-
 co will never come from better di- vision of the soil We see around us
 men with land hunger and jump to the conclusion that the man to the south J of us is suffering for a bit of dirt to call his own. As near as I can get
 at the situation. Mexican peon in agri- culture or on hacienda, is a self sold slave. and prefers the system under which he lives to one of self-depend- leEce.
 This being true, am of the opinion
 that the redemption of Mexico annot be found on the agricultural side but must be looked for in the invasion of
 business. This no doubt is an upset ting theory to those who have never taken the trouble to find out just how peons have been transformed into good h.