The Washington herald., 1920-09-26

MEXICO at last is welcoming back her
A'1 aristocratic eIiles-those pathetic VIC
TINS OF ten years of turmoil and blood
letting in the republic south of the Rio
Grsnde. Once the financial and social props
Of the brilliant regime of Perfrio Diaz. and
driven helter- -skelter to the four corners of
the earth when the fires of revolution famed
forth, they are now free to return in peace.
The banishment which fell upon them when
Francisco Madero's rebel army sent old
Pornrlo's autocratic sway c~mbling into
DUST and drove them to find havens sin the
United States, England, France and Spain,
SEEKING relief from a reign of banditry, as
sasslnation and spoliation that has few
parallels in history, has been lifted. The
doors OF racked and blood redeemed Mexico
are open today to receive them, just as was
the gateway Of France when the passions
OF the Reign of Terror had hickered out and
the emigre mobiles of the faithless and fallen
King Louis were permitted once again to
Ind security on the soil of their motherlsnd.
A MNESTY Is theirs. Turmoil is over for
L the time; hatreds are at rest. Provisional
PRESIDENT de la Huerta, the new keeper
OF the gates Of Mexico, has extended the
olive branch to the emigres of the discarded
Dlaz reign. The outside world has been told
that along with the plans he has for the
rehabilitation of the shattered public. De Ia
duerta intends that his mending process
carry also the restoration of those landed
estates that were torn from their owners in
the scourge of revolution. He looks be-
niQnanfIv fba oil -
repatriates, whose capital crime was their
devotion to the old Diaz rule and their
belief in its divine right. In the eyes Of
the watchful world, as in the graces Of the
survivors Of the old order, their return
will, as De la Huerta and his supporters
believe, better accord with their scheme of
anity in Mexican affairs and free their ad-
ministration of the taint Of fostering hatreds
inherited from the past.
Peace is in the air of the Mexican capital.
As observers view it, the high note of a
eoncordant Mexico has at last hit the upward
curve. 1t suggests a softer justice to the
war battered, soul-torn Mexican aristoc-
racy, with tacit understanding, however,
that those who shared the ruin of the DIsz
primacy may have no more than a passive
interest in the events now transpiring below
the American border to restore Mexican
credit in the balance of the world.
General Alyaro Obregon, lkened by many
as Mexico's "strong man." also looks toler-
antly on this homeward march of the landed
gentry. 1t is to Obregon, in fact, that credit
is given for the policy of Cancellation now
ascendant in Mexican affairs. The rebirth
Of the republic should, and by his cham
piOnship will, he has let it be known, pivot
largely on the restoration of estates piIIaged
and penalized in the ten years of internecine
strife. And the pillaged victims themselves
are disposed to meet this new situation more
than half way. Their faith in Mexico is too
strong to be denied. Whatever the hazard
Of the return may be, it is of lesser moment
now in the present outlook of these home
coming exiles, for in the new deal south of
the American border they fOresee Mexico
rising out of its long choas into an era Of
tranquility supported by the rule Of justice
and law.
These political factors, which have fur
nished the background of so many of Mexi-
cos tragic events, however, are only referred
to as they relate to the changing fate of a
group of luckless children of misfortune,
who, victims of the uncertain shifts Of
those Mexican political currents which have
controlled their lives for ten weary years,
were made to know more of sorrow and mis-
fortune than an unseeing world will, per-
haps, ever appreciate or understand. But,
as the new order of leadership has promised,
another and more radiant day has dawned.
The Mexico of Carranza passed with the
bullet that snufed out that troubled rule
the new control in Mexico's destiny, II we
are to believe it, is laying a foundation Of
security upon which even the most undesira-
bic of the old Diaz social and governmental
household may in safety tread. Not one of
those larger obstacles which a while back
loomed so forbiddingly against the return of
these banished aristocrats today is in sight.
By the same irony of the warfare which
laid its devastating hand on the estates Of
those who surrounded the court of the old
dictator, their chief enemies have persisted,
while the remaining one is out of the way
by self elimination. Francisco Madero,
liberator of the lowly peon; Victoriano
Huerta and Venustiano Carranza are dead
two of them victims of the assassin's bullet
and the third as the broken soldier in an
unhappy exile. While these three men lived
the barrier to the return of the Mexican
emigres was insurmountable.
Pancho Villa, the arch foe of Mexico's
Villa has laid down his arms, a voluntary
acceper Of the new rule that has lately