OCR Text |
Show H I SHALL THE UNITED STATES Hj PUNISH MEXICO? Hj There are two sides to Mexican in- Hj terventton. Ono Is that the United Vl States should proceed, without count- R 1 ing the cost, to administer a severe H ; rebuke. The other view point figures H the cost In men and money. Those t opposed to intervention present these i statistics of probable expenditure In VJ lives and treasure: H i An army of 600,000 men; a cost of j $2,000,000 a day; a total of $450,000,- 1000 the first year; almost certain loss of 250,000 Americans by death or In-Jury In-Jury In ibattle and by typhus fever. Invasion means occupation; mere de- f feat of the scattered bandit bands by f the handful of United States troops H along the border will not bring peace K to the country; the mountains and B valleys must be policed to prevent B J the descent of new brigands from Bj ' their secret fastnesses. The bulk of r the army of intervention must be vol- Hj unteers, for the 25,000 regulars now B on the border arc practically all that H can be spared for duty in Mexico. Ex- perts expects half of such a volunteer B army to disappear In tho first six J the probable length of a campaign of fl conquest. j If intervention is justified, we B should not stop to estimate the sacrl- B I co tns country would be called on Bf to make. But there are many level B headed statesmen who doubt that an offense great enough has been com B mltted by Mexico to warrant an in- B vasion of that country. Acts of band- B It forces are not chargeable against H a government so -long as the official Hi head of that government earnestly, I vigilantly and relentlessly strives to punish the brigands. Should Car-: ranza show indifference to the appeal of the United States, then Mexico as n whole might be held to be participat- H( ing, by an act of omission, in the mur- Hj I der of Americans, and then a blow H I struck In the name of American honor H would be defensible. Many years ago an American mob B attacked the Chinese miners at Rock B Springs, Wyoming. Tho Asiatics Hl were driven out of the town and shot Hh down In the same cold-blooded man- Hjt ncr that the Americans were put to Bjj death near Santa Ysabel, Mexico. No Bij attempt was made to inflict condign Bii punishment on the perpetrators of tho BIj massacre, but the United States later B paid China an indemnity, which B ! proved fully satisfying, B An indemnity in this instance, will M not meet the demands of the United H I States, as tho atrocities call for the H J inflicting of retributive justice. The Hl assassins must be hunted down with- Hll out mercy and made to pay the pen- Htl alty of the old Mosaic law of an eye H for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, not Ht that the American people arc Hij blood thirsty, but as a warning to R other Mexican bandits and as an ef- H fectlve preventive measure directed against the outlaws of a turbulont country where Americans, to protect their extensive interests, are tempted to venture. on |