OCR Text |
Show SITUATION CRITICAL. Events in and around Chihuahua City for the past few days make it unnecessary unneces-sary for General Carranza to decide either for or against the protocol agreed upon at Atlantic City. With the forces of Francisco Villa swarming over northern north-ern Mexico, it would be criminally fool-ish fool-ish to withdraw the expedition of General Gen-eral Pershing and leave the Mormon set- ,i ' Moments unprotected and expose the American border to further raids. The troops cannot be withdrawn even if i Carranza makes known his willingness to sign an agreement along the lines : laid down by Secretary Lane, for it is specifically provided that conditions for v such withdrawal must be favorable. ; As the ' prevailing conditions could not be more unfavorable, we expect : General Pershing to remain just where ' he is or to advance further into Mexico in pursuit of predatory bands of bandits. ban-dits. It is not probable an attack will " bo made upon American soldiers by or- ; der of Villa, for that would destroy all chance of his overturning the Carranza ' government. But other outlaws are likely to make border raids which will compel pursuit, and thus involve the outlaw who wishes to discard the name of bandit and be known as a revolutionist. revolu-tionist. In fact, we do not seo how Villa is going to avoid a clash with the United States troops on account of his wanton attack upou Columbus, N. M., several American soldiers being slain. ; If we understand the existing situation, Villa is still under tho .ban . so far as tbo United States is concerned, and should he fall into the hands of General Gen-eral Pershing he would cither be taken to Columbus and hanged after a trial for murder, or turned over to the tender ten-der mercies of Carranza, who would undoubtedly un-doubtedly make short work of him. It is perhaps a good thing that the fight at Chihuahua City happened at tho time it did, for the government at Washington might have consented to the withdrawal of the punitive expedition and then been compelled to send the soldiers back over the border without delay, thereby losing the advantage now possessed by having an army ready for instant action in the field. If Villa secures possession of Chihuahua City and then attempts to move toward the border, we have a right to expect that ho will come into collision with Geucral Pershing 's forces or some other regiments regi-ments of United States soldiers and be pursued until he is finally killed or captured. cap-tured. This would seem to be the logical logi-cal outcome, for under no circumstances can the government at Washington allow al-low him standing as a revolutionist. Should he bo able to raise an army of sufficient size to march southward and join with the other malcontents who aro in arms against the do facto government, we presume Uncle Sam will r continue to watch and wait. In case Carranza Car-ranza should lose and Diaz or some other leader be chosen to head a provisional government the question of recognition would come up again. But there would be no chance for Villa at any stage of the proceedings, for the Columbus crime must be expiated one way or another. While tho situation along the border may be alarming, the battles over possession pos-session of Chihuahua City aro of sufficient suffi-cient consequence to justify the apprehension appre-hension that there is great danger of our becoming involved. |