The Washington times., 1924-02-01
OBREG0N. LEADS
REBELS TO
!. !. DEFEAT
Writer Shows How Mexico's
d President Is Handling
( = Situation.
BY ARTHUR CONSTANTINE,
International News Service.

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 1.-Prest-
dent Alvaro Obregon, Of Mexico, Is
fighting several groups Of rebels to
show them who rules the country
1.-THE government of which he Is
the head, or they. That, for the
moment, is the whole. issue. These
afe military uprisings in Mexico.
They; have q saying in Mexico
that revolutions always win."
There was an editorial in Excel
Gior" the other day. Excelsior" Is
one of therstwo leading newspapers
Gt the republic. In politics 1t Is
conservative. The Excelsior said:
yves, revolutions win in Mexico.
when the government commits sui
eide. Obregon is no suicide."
President Obregon has captured
the imaginations, even OF his foes,
by the energy and determination ne
has put into his fight against the
rebels. He has become a field gen!
eral again-the still unbeaten field
general Of Mexico. Throughout the
revolutionary epoch, '191O-1920,y he
was always the victorious general.
For a time there was another,
"Pancho" Villa. At last, in 1915,
at Celaya, Guanajuanto. the two
ul0L III ndCI1cs SDE0SOA WAAPPoO
villa, so decisively that the other
neveI3 came back.
Il 0bregon Now the, General.
Now, for the time being, Obregon
is actually the general rather than
the President. He Is leading an
army-its battle leader. He him.
self commands the forces Of the
government that are facing the
Estradistas on the Jaisco border,
admittedly the most formidable
outfit in rebellion against him. One
battle may end it. That Is the
forecast here, but, on the other
hand, perhaps two or three cam
paigns will be necessary before
Obregon has whipped them all. He
will undoubtedly continue to stay
at the head Of hSs army until he
has shown the rebels who is mas
ter in Mexico, he or they. And
until he has shown them whether
constitutional government can pre-
vail in this republic. And that it
is hoary old lie that "revolu-
tions in Mexico always win
He is only forty.three, in the
bronchial trouble. II Appearances
tisement for health. When the cor
respondent df International News
Service was talking to him in Cha
pultepec, Castle. the other night
Obregon looked as rugged as a
bear A couple of weeks. in the
field had worked off superfluous
weight. His face was as r1ddy as
O newly arrived Britisher's.
He told how he took : field.
He hsf been i'll agar on
III rem the news + .'e p
sin s"rne. He rose irom 3
aegan tc dresH Whe. =
'>rTg' Ife. ~ cor : in.
st,,..ay. ,ha *s..,.. 'Alvf )u
go ul' h v roI,7 VIII
catch your death. tie e. d;
''Mejor que me muerO en- tJrlro
que me agarran en- mi came. Bet
ter I die in the field thar they
grab me in bed.) He laughed as
he ended the taIe-a hearty
chuckle. He thought he had
one over on his enemies.
ObregOn Is Confident. g..
Obregon is a robust man. At
times the whole revolution appears
to him to be something Of q joke
o joke with which the leaders
think they can get away. He
knows what he can do-learned to
know his strength long ago. BY
the same token he thinks he has
the measure Of the men who have
gone out against hm. He has ma
tured his plans for dealing with
them-with ''infidentes," as he
refers to them. By names, never
Just ''infidentes." Insurgents is a
mild word for it in English.
This one-armed leader Of Mexico
and he Is the outstanding figure
In the turmoil, one might almost
say, the whole shows fighting
as he always fought, with the ut.
most deliberation. Throughout his
campaigns from 1912 to 1914, when
he led an army Of 1000 into Mex.
leo City while garrison of $4,000
evacuated hurriedly, he went into
action only after taking pains to
prepare his army to win.
This is what he has been doing
for the last three weeks at Ira
puato, preparing his army to strike
decisively when the battles get un.
derway-to win by a Knockout. In
that respect he is quite un.Mexi.
can. He fights to win. Others
fight half the time for the sake
OF fighting. In his thoroughness
he is Anglo-Saxon rather than
typically Latin-American. Usually
even the better fighters Mexico
has produced in recent years have
dashed headlong into battles, de.