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Show Wt The Facts About Mexico Ijjl By Robert H. Murray ! (Mr. Murray was for tru oars n rCHldciif orr,.sHiiileiit in Mcx-" Mcx-" 1 loa Cll) for the rw York 'orhl mid in charge of (lie Mexican w Hon of the t . s uommlltoc on ,'j public informntlon during the I world war. lor his latter Itrll- 5 II limit service to thJ- country anil ! the allies, he ha- bCCIl (lOOOratOtl bj lmi ami recounnendcd lot the I United Stated distlngulslicd Scrv- Ice medal.) B NEW YOKK, Aug. 25. What are I 1 &ur commitments in Mexico? To tvhat . ffl extent arc we responsible to our own Jl a people and to the rest of the world Jm "r policing tliat stretch of the cn- - tial-South American beat? What have fil J 1 ' 1, K undon " -Mexico th.it national ni w' honor and dignity required should be jjB. B clone? What otiRht we to do now? H (irico, a loiie," tlpm ugo, I ankril l'or- flrlo Diaz whj Mexico had not gone into the big navy game, like Chili, the1 'lOBM Argentine. IJruzll. The old gentleman rjW smiled a slow, sage smile and replied: TrXH "Mexico needs no large and ex- I pensive navy' the Monroe doctrine Is' M i xico's navy." tm Meaning that under the .Monroe B dcctrlne the American navy, If emer- Ag k- ii' y rei'jlffi would throw up ;i sti fl sgH all around Mexico to protect her from European aggression, which would be fine (or Mexico, but what - . "s li bout US ? 'V- The Monroe dOCtrlAV, If it is more than the dusty, effete, archaic docu- lisa runt which many persons especially 'I ilM Central and Soutji America arc , ILjM commencing " think 11 It bears for I'SI u responsiDllitl'.s besides those of U I shooing kings, princes and potentates uvvq from setting up hop on this hemisphere It also makes us the guarantee for the good behavior of the 'JCJC- popples to the south of us. That Is tsS 5 'l cnn hardly be doubted ttv.it cm- Ml pn e-bulldlng England, or the umbl- H " llous and predatory Germany thai Miff was, or perhaps France, would have undertaken b. iorf. 1914 to have given m& Mexico a sound shaking and cuffing W find sat her down hard .f it hadn't Y been for us and our felisli of ;i Mon-' fE ioc doctrine. For both England and if, f Prance have suffered as mil i if not, more. In Mexico than the United Stales! Wm has. : rj ji Before we So any further on this V f''"'lm truck, a few words on the subject of ' JS Antericans who have been murdered ' 'J In Mexico since 1310 No adequate tx- .'iifl cuso or upolog can Lc advanced for ''r$ these outrages They should never - jj have taken place, The score of Am- .ijf.'j erican dead In Mexico has been ex- p uggerated for prup-m.-mdu pur pes. h 1( : ive could sift the facta tin lists, prpb- 'i ably would shrink by a third, perhaps S half. -'$g 1 find for Instance, that B general ' s; impression prevails that scores of Am- " CS cricans were killed In Mexico City dur- . ing the "Decehd Traglcu ' in 1913 when Madero and the rebels were lighting v V Exactly three Americans lost the;r ... - Uvea I um thus spci Ific, not to pal- n, llatc these deaths, but to offer fncls 1 1 3 offset hysterii a J In a majority of cases, too, Amort-L Amort-L i ns have not been killed b use i they were Americans Sometimes j they h oc. but tin sc cases are ex- ceptional. Thej were killed, In most k Instances, because they wero forclgn- r Jk err who happened to get In the way rik Had the circumstances been similai T'lBgi i hey probabl would have died had, they been British, French, German. I Spanish, Italian. - . u All who have lled for any length Bp of time In Mexico, ana who will tell fl& the truth, will agree with me that the jrts Mexicans do not " hate" Americans i 15 with any Irreconcilable, Intense, bloorj hatred, such as legend has it that 't- they cherish toward us Did they, an of us In Mexico would have hail our fi ' ;hj tiiroats silt long ago There Is racial 1 H antagonism, like that nctwecn most other peoples of different strains and languagi b .. ' If the Mexicans, the masses ri :illy J kt dislike to an approximation of hatred Ji M an foreigners domiciled among theni v k It is the Spaniards, "gachuplnes," "i !SJ " land-robbers," as thej ar,. popularly termed there. That sentiment is u htrltage of the Conquest, All this, ns I said before. Is not of- ,1 fered In excuse, or extenuation, but HV to clarify the situation and the facts JT and get the record straight. Besides I 0j It was Taft who first virtually pro-1 claimed open season for Americans in! Mexico bj ordering them to get out, which was the same as saying to the' Mexicans that we had withdrawn the protection of the United States inun 'i.; j our nationals In Mexico. An) how, that iiii 1C W8y '1C Mexicans rigured It. I fL regardless of the meaning and Intent kr of the step. Before the revolution It used to tie BRb loosely stated and believed that we had more than 60,000 nationals domt-cl.ed domt-cl.ed in Mexico and above one billion dollars Invested Wild shots, both. J,.' When the lost Mexica census was taken, In 1H10, when the foreign population pop-ulation waa at flood, there were less HI ithan 2fitO0O Americans In the republic If We had half o billion dollars In I Mexico that was easily top figure. The railroads, most of them, were projected project-ed and built by Americans. But the bulk of the capital came I rem England, France, Belgium and German) From w in. nee iame iho pl.tal Of the great banks, the Banco Kaclonal and the Banco de f,oidres .Mexico for example'' Principally from I'rance. British mining Investments are as big .is Americana Britain probably 1 i.s as much Invested in agriculture .developments. The great dry-goods and Jewelry hops arc French. The Gcimans had almost a monopoly of the hardware trad.- The textile works an British Frenon and Spanish. The I powerful tramways and electrical svs-item svs-item of the Olt of Mexico are British-owned, British-owned, but an American projected and built It Amcrkan capital was lopd Is heavily represented in mining, .inic agriculture and, at present, It Is deep in petroleum But the British and tin Dutch arc not fur behind In tnat, even Totaled, the European score against Mexico Is gre:iter. for gri .iter, than ours Don't forget that, the next lime .in Interventionist couches his argumentative argu-mentative lance at you. But how are we to escane our re-i re-i ponslbillties In Mexii Lmdi r 'he Men-j Men-j roe doctrine ? Don't ask nip. Ask Some of the politicians who seelulously wet-nurse it, and occasionally give it :i surreptitious pinch to make it yell when they want the voters to think that the Uld Flag Is In danger. What should we do? Thut Is easy. e should proxidc ourseles with a p llcy. Not merely with what we ha e I loi ten ears called a policy. Saying and maintaining ih.it wo do not warn ti, nor will we. Intervene in Mexico, , 1 s not a policy, an mon' than two ifcet of catgut can be called a fiddle I A policy without detail, plan, limits, purpose, continuity and these words should be printed In circus-type jgor and constructive force has prov-1 prov-1 d tu bi bad for both Mexico and us. AikI It Is not a policy. It Is a mess. l'robably It wouldn't be a bad no-t:"ii no-t:"ii to set down Justly, uncrjulvoe.il-ly, uncrjulvoe.il-ly, fully anel In business-like terms our Irreducible minimum of what we expect ex-pect from Mexico Then talk It over w.th the new el menls In government . here h not get down to brass tacks? 'Give Mexico time to turn herself. With the best disposition in the world It Is going to take more than 15 minutes 'icr the Mexicans to prove by works the faith we say we haVfj In them Diaz used up a quartet of a century i In limiting Mexico lit for polite international inter-national society Whin he started In the country wasn't half as dishevelled es it Is now But he enjoyed the nei-vantage nei-vantage Of not having any hurt dollars, dol-lars, pounds, Bancs and marks yu-pln yu-pln at his heels Not long ago an esteemeel, but atra-'bilious atra-'bilious friend of mine abandoned Mexico Mex-ico to her fate, because things down there weren't going to suit him, -and j Wrote :c piece about It which he called "hi She Worth Saving?'' So hear as one I could make out, after clawing one1 WSJ through Ihi oily smelling folds of, crepe in which he swatned the piecw, my friend figured that .she Is, but that wr must llek her first Setting aside as immaterial, per-1 haps, that In ins respectful Judgment m." frienel's opinions were dictated by hjj liver rather than by his heael, it still remains certain that Mexico, so far, doesn't require any saving What she needs Is help. i isn't now necca-j s ir), and probably will not become so, that any punitive processes Should ! precede the helping. i the saving, if It comes to thai. Or coursi , there Is no telling what bungling will lead up to. It is difficult for us. In the l niterl Sb.des.. to tell exactly how bad things' in Mexico really are. The telling of I tht t ile, sticking closely to the baro facts, Is bad enough, without ling or c xaggeratlon The only source of information available to the majority are the newspapers und contact with persons from Mexico. Much as It grieves me,, a practical newspaper man for more j than 1'5 years, to say this, it is unfor- Uinately true that the Mexican notices printed In the papers of the Fnlted States afford about the worst possible it.elex to what really Is the state of affairs In the southern republic. Peaceful Mexico did not furnish an item a month on the average. We all know what her news output has been since then EXPECTING THE WORST. We and that Includes newspaper men and editors have grown Into the Iviblt of expecting th. wnrst Of Mex- lcc We print the worst, we believe this worst when we see it printed, with g.isto anl Incurious credence I nr ran easily sell a series of articles eie-scribing eie-scribing Mexico In revolution, with! all the opport unities for word -Jazzing that the subject offers Editors eat J 'em up So do readers. i But a set of truthful, conservative articles, telling something hopeful and I heipful and there are plenty of th.ings going on down there which prov triii I Mexico Is holding her own surprisingly well In mining, petroleum, (agriculture, fibers and other productive produc-tive ways, and that general conditions fic-n't half as discouraging ns most persons believe about the country and the people? One has as much show at peddling tho.-i as one would I have In trying to Bell William J. Br) an a case of prime old vatted Scotch. Constructive and conservative news 'from Mexico has no more chance In I (he public prints here than a teardrop would hav In a forest fire Uhf ortunatel) revolution destrue--tion, killing, tearing down, especially m Mexico, Is ' news Folks like to read those things. An eellior can get ,a snappy llrst-page head out of them ho aside from :i haneiful. gives a hang about Mexico rising to supremacy suprem-acy as an oil producer, that she Is hav-lng hav-lng this i ir the biggest I rOPfl of corn and other grains In her hlstbrj or that her output of silver In ounces la greater than it ever was before. Il Is all Hue. But, It Isn t news. The revolution has b-fi its mark heavily upon Mexico. But not Inerad-liChJly Inerad-liChJly Mexico today Is the richest un-di un-di veiope'i accessible country in the world, in developments only, the surface sur-face has been scratched jven not more than two ytars of good govern-m govern-m tit, with a e o in i -c n ing order and lot her stabilizing elements, Mexico, economically, eco-nomically, vein be back where she was before the revolution. When the revolution was at its worst, the people bf Mexico were never 'in such straits tor food m are toda) tin wretched Inhabitants of Poland, Austria, some of the Balkans nr sections sec-tions of Russia Neither had the revolution rev-olution taken the toll of deaths In I Mexico more than u very small fiac-l fiac-l lie n of what war revolution, f amine, break-down of governments has from European peoples There is work a-plenty fo' everyone in Mexico, In the fields, the mines, the i in lories, on the railroads. There al-v.;.)s al-v.;.)s has boen a shortage of labor i there Mexico today Is not producing a tithe of what shc should, especially in I agriculture. The land Is there as fruitful as ever, Ibut tools, machinery, hands, protection from brigand i la needed before these millions of fat acres call bo gotten lb..ck into production. Scores of mines, most ot them small, but some of Important Im-portant magnitude- cannot be worked Dei lus of lock of protection, or of facilities, by rail or otherwise, to get In supplies or to ship their product out. Economically, the problem of railroad rail-road transportation is the most serious With vvhie h the country has to coje The lines, most of which were in mag-niticent mag-niticent condition ten years ago, are j.0iot to pieces. Rehabilitation of the railways must oc made in Mexico before there Is an) worth-while permanent relief from! economic pressure. Mexico is good for every dollar she owes, and for fifty limes as much i onsidorlng the size of her population and the tremendous potential value of her resources today Mexico Is In far belter flnunclal condition than an) of the European countries, big or little, that participated in ths war. she is a b ttcr risk, too, when It comes down to estimating her ability to pay her debts. Also, as I have previous! mentioned do not let us forget the important fact that the- bulk of what Mexico owes in every way with the possible exception ex-ception of damage claims arising from the revolution ahc owe8 to British. French, Italians, Spaniards, Germans und Belgians, and not to Americans N K Ml ST I IN AM I Hl.lt The banks will need to be encour-;i7-d to resume operations, too, in order or-der to get the business and credit machinery ma-chinery of the republic back into ef-i-.tlve working order. Steps to this end are being taken. She must also be financed Wo must do that. No Other countr) Is In a position to loan htr what she needs to set up in busi-ri busi-ri ss again. In short. Mexico is not half as badly bad-ly off financially, economically, or socially so-cially as one would conclude after a ten-year course of the newspaper and magazine Jeremiads which have been fed out to us. Her condition Is bad. but not so bad as that Emphatically, she Is worth saving, to answer m atrabilious friend's question. ques-tion. But it is help ond patient e fi 6m her helpers that Is her greatest pres. ent need. Not saving. If we do not help, :md quickly, too. moat likely .she 1 111 require saving later on But If It I doea comi to saving, that will be our fault, as much as Mexico s. "Are those new people down there going to make it go?" That Is the llrst epiestlon one Is asked about Mexico Mex-ico these days Frankly, I do not know. The "those new people" dent know themselves, probably. I I Iht'pe they will 1 will go so far as to say that I beheve they will If they do not. It will be a case of "after theni the deluge.' I'm afraid. As a m:. Iter of fact, It si-cms In me that ttiey simply have got to make It go This is the situation, without blinking blink-ing it Mexico has been in disorder for a decade. She is, as 1 have said I before, the richest undev eloped accessible acces-sible country, on earth. The world, not only In Its normal requirements. but In the work of reconstruction following fol-lowing the damage wrought during the WOT, has urgent need of all that Mex- lico can produce In the rciw metals ! petroleum, fibers, cattle limber and !so on. Mexico must get back Into production, produc-tion, and on a scale of far more Imposing Im-posing magnitude than she ever bus j be fore attained. The needs of the 1'wbrld require it. Mexico, being what and where she lis, mrikcd this imperative Mei must K I back Into produc tion. She must lordcr her hoisc so that ahe cnn. If 'she doesn't, or if she cannot, there liippenr.s to be onl one alternative. That sums up the case as I see It. boo m ) m i c qv Esnoxa By natuic of the circumstances, the problem of Mexico today is ns much cn economic one as anything That is the hinge upon which the whole Mexican question swings- It Is the 'economic lactor which will be decisive in ths settlement, whether the settlement settle-ment Is bj the Mexicans, or someone ClFC. Whether "those new peoplo down there will make ii go" depends partly upon them and partly upon us, the L'nlteel States They cannot make It So without- our help. As a matter of fact, there Is nothing Iv.hlch our government is likely to tell i Mexico that she expects to do, as the price of our friendship and assistance, tli.it the present provisional president, Ser.or de la Huerta, or the constitutional constitu-tional president-presumptive, General obregon, have not already pledged themselves to do. This includes settlement of the petroleum pe-troleum controversy (although this twill not carry with it amendments of the new constitution, which arc demanded de-manded b) the most rabid of the m-ericah m-ericah Mexico hecklers) the return of the railways to their foreign owners, the muklng of provision for the lay-n. lay-n. ent of the foreign debt and damage claims asserted by foreigners, that no constitutional provisions shall he given giv-en retroactive force, that adequate piotectlon be extended to American ond other foreign lives and property that fining Conditions as to law and cider be created These- are the esse es-se ntlals. GIUSAT NEED EN MEXICO. The first and current great necessity neces-sity in Mexico Is peace and order. Governments In Mexico rule by force It the) eion't they don't rule. That Is ill there is to that. De la Huerta, ii Obregon, has got to get and keep the country In hand bctoie anv thing else- Is done. Both de la Huerta and Obregon have a long, hard row ahead of them You nnot tear up a country us Mexico has I I e n lorn up since 1 i 1 o and get It back ed the tr.o k by epilttlng time on Saturday, Sat-urday, merely b) holding up an ."i-n.onltory ."i-n.onltory hand and enunciating, cither .m Spanish or tngllsh. "1'cace be Still I" The mere fact th.et a new government, govern-ment, composed of rational, well-ln- l 1 1 1 1 I inert'cMi men Set.-, up IhisI- ncss. doesn't, by Itself, mean anvlhlng particularly It Is what that government govern-ment accomplishes, when It la given a reasonable amount of :imo, that knocks. The most friendly, upward boost that wc can give the present Mexican government Is to recognise it, now, rfght off the bat, providing It can pre-sent pre-sent as clean a bill of health, so far Its legality goes, and as acceptable a program to us as I think It can Either, the new government will fall, or it will stick If we recognize it and it sticks, good. If we do not recognize recog-nize It and It falls, bad. Bad especially especial-ly tor us, us well as for Mexico. If wo do not rceognizo It and It conies to disaster, there alwu)S will be an argument in tho I assertion, which will be made, that If we had reeog-r.izcel reeog-r.izcel It, given It that invaluublc support, sup-port, effective Inside of Mexico as well as oulslde, it would have bucceed-ed. 1 will nrager that if every American who has any Interest in Mexico, even If it is no more than the onlv thing which most of us tin-re have, namely, a Job, and whose opinion on the sub-ect sub-ect is worthy of consideration, was polled, not mOro thin lift) In the whole- republic would say aught than "For heaven's sake, re-cognlze this government, and do It quick'" HUERTA TO MEET U. S. WISHES. Un the- present aspect of the Mexican Mexi-can problem, and on many other iin-portant iin-portant topics, I'd rather accept the Judgment of a group of experienced, hard-boiled newspaper men than that of any other citizens, even professional statesmen For Instance A few weeks ago President do la Huerta got up from a sick bed and recolved In audience au-dience 26 or 30 newspaper correspon-dents, correspon-dents, representing all of the big papers pa-pers anel news agencies In this coun-try, coun-try, and a few from England. For nearly three hours they put him through a stiff third degree The) piled him Incessantly with questions about Mexico, his program, petroleum, tho I nited Stales, tho death of Car-ranza, Car-ranza, debts, damage claims, murdered murder-ed Americans everything. He didn't dodgs a single question. He answered them all, fairly, squarely and at length. If there was a reportei there I was not present at tho session ses-sion but the correspondents told me about It. enthusiastically who Wasn't convinced that do la Huerta was tne goods, that he wos well poised as to hi duties, his obligations and the ne-Ct'CSltieS ne-Ct'CSltieS of the situation, that, so Tar as he was able, Mexico and his government gov-ernment would play (.hG game, he didn't report to me They tell me, too, that what goes, In this regard, for de la Huerta, goes also for his probable successor, Obregon Obre-gon There Is no flaw In the legality of ihe de la Huerta government Tho hi fortunate murder of Carranea clear-i clear-i il tho w:i fpr that. Ethically and on Mexico's uccount, I am not enthusiastic enthu-siastic over the manner In which tho i arranza government was disposed 0. Especially do 1 regret and depre- ..t.- the wanton killing of Cdrrahza; Itut and this brings up a point upon which I touched in an earlier nrll-cle, nrll-cle, about measuring deeds and personages per-sonages In Mexico by our own yardstick yard-stick -it Is conditions, and not theo ries, which confront us thero. MORE PEACEFUL NOW. As the situation stands now de la Huerta already has given pledges which should be satisfactory to our government. So has Obregon. An election has been called for the first Sunday In September. Barring contingencies con-tingencies now unforeseen, Obregon win be elected. He will take office Bee 1 Mexico Is at present more peaceful than it has been for years. If we recognize the new government promptly and Mexico does her share, I dlsctrn clearing skies In Mexico But we must do more than that We need to be patient and practical. At times we've been both slnglv, but in- r have we had them working In double I : 1 1 n e s s We inuot come down heavy and hard on Mexican plots and plotters In th I nited States. And stop gun-running ii ro-ss the border to Villa or any other rebel So far as Mexico goes, she must make good on her promises to com-p3 com-p3 with her International obligations She must stop annoying honest and properly conducted American business ..i.temi lues. Sho must see to it that protection is given to American lives She must not only promise, but perform. per-form. She must come to some ar-raiigement ar-raiigement with the bankers for the resumption of her foreign debt service- She must proceed to the adjudication of damage claims. She must clean I house. And both of us should stop making I faces nt each other. Your wife is probablv the best man- J agcr you ever had and the cheapest uu The sunshine of life searches every ! corner but misses the misanthrope. |