New-York tribune., 1920-07-09

SeSAC com.
paperisimo' that you could not UNDER
stand.
"Only the signers Of your message
are thirty-one soldiers and one civil
ian, number more than enough If you
had known how to fulfill your duty.
to have saved the life Of Senior Car
ranza, It 1t was, as you yourself say,
an assassination. have the right to
suppose that you all fled without using
your arms, since none Of you was
even woundcds If you had known how
to die, defending the life of your leader
and friend. who had always for you
so much consideration. you would have
ccnciliated in part public opinion and
your own .consciences, and you would
have freed yourselves from the stain
Of having to accept the insult that will
always weigh on you.
"A. oBREGoN."
Message Innames Public
In this bitter and not unfounded at
tack was already commenced. al
though no one yet realized its sip-
nificance, the attitude the new govern
ment was to follow in fixing the re-
sponsibility for the death Of the leader
Of the~old.
With the publication of this message
public opinion ran still higher. Not
only was Herrero traidor, an assas-
Carranza were all "sin verguenzas"
(people without shame).
On this day Obregon announced the
appointment of commission to pro-
ceed Immediately to the scene Of the
crime and make complete report.
This was the first of the commissions
and reports.
Gonzales, chief of the Liberal revo-
luton and army, ordered the immedi-
ate capture of Herrero. These orders
were transmitted to General Jesus
Novoa, the jefe Of the sector Of the
sierra where Herrero was supposedly
hiding with his men.
The body of the President was ex-
pected to arrive in the capital that
night. The new government gave or
ders that there would be no public
signs of mourning.
On Monday, the Gath, the body ar
rived at the Colonia station. Just out
side the city the train was halted and
the leading Carranzistas, who, if they
could not defend their chief living,
were still following him dead, were
taken off and put under arrest. Cen
erals Barragan, Murguia, Urquizo, Mon
tes and Mariel, and Bonillas, Berlanga,
Gil Farias and some others were taken
by automobile to the penitentiary.
Body Taken to Residence
The body Of Carranza was taken to
his home and all that day and the next
crowd of curious filed along before
it. Still nothing definite was made
public concerning the facts of his
death. On this day Adolfo de la Huerta
was designated Provisional President.
Tuesday, however, reporter who had
been sent by local newspaper to
meet che body at the little railroad
town of Beristain, on the edge of the
sierra, published his story. This was
more interesting for what it did not
tell than for what it did. The reporter
went on to Nixaca and described the
arrival there of the homemade coffin,
carried down from the mountains
across branches of trees. 1t was fol-
lowed by fifty or sixty horsemen, the
remnant Of the Carranzistas. The re-
porter knew many Of them personally.
He went to one after the other, asking
the simple facts. But already, there on
the dark edge of the mountains, the
veil of secrecy and evasion had de-
scended.
"seek Marciano Gonzales" they told
him. "He is the only one who will
talk"
Gonzales gave the interview used in
part above, an interview not lacking in
detail or interest until he arrived at
the climax, the actual death; when, he
merely gave wave Of the hand /,
"came confusion, bullets, all. Then you
know what happened"
Report of Commission
On Wednesday, the 26th, the report
of the special commission named by
Gonzales and Obregon to investigate
the happenings at Tlaxcalantongo"
was made public. These four gentle
men, like the reporter, went only as
far as the railroad town Of Beristain,
and contented themselves with ques-
tioning several of the Carranza escort
when they arrived there with the body.
For not proceeding to the actual scene
of the crime they gave the following
reasons:
"Not only from data given us by the
declarants, but also from information
given by various neighbors of Beristain
we arrived at the certainty that the
event had happened at half-past three
in in a night extremely dark and rainy.
This reason, added to credible infor-
nation that none Of the few inhabitants
Of Tlaxcalantongo knew anything about
the affair precisely because of the
time it took place. and. finally, the con-
viction that we would not be able to
examine Herrero nor his people be-
cause they had fled, made US decide
not to go to Tlaxcalontongo, because
such trip would be useless, as we
could not constitute ourselves there as
judicial authority, with gun experts
and all other means necessary to study
the case"
Death Is Pictured
However, the commission gave as
well proved" the facts set forth above
concerning the meeting of the Car
ranzistas with Herrero, his disposition
of the huts, the advance guards, the
arrival of two Indians at 3 in the
morning within the hut o. Carranza,
and as Point 8: "a half-hour after