Newspaper Page Text
Some Things to Remember in
Connection with the Mexi
can Situation.
(continued from page one.)
the look of supreme insolence and of arrogant
self-satisfaction.
The reading matter beneath the picture of
the two burly blacks, mounted on their splen
did cavalry horses, follows:
Somewhere in Chihuhua.—There’s terror in
Northern Mexico! Peons of the deserts and
mountains think the world has turned against
them!
That’s because General Pershing made a wise
move and sent in negro cavalry from Hachita,
N. M., the day of the first invasion, and negro
infantry from Columbus afterward.
“These dark people—they are not Anieri
canoes!” cry the Mexicans as the negro troops
pass. “The gringoes have brought other nations
to fight against us!”
“We’re Americans, all right, and don’t you for
get it,” the negroes on horses responded.
John Kenneth Turner, a well-known author
and newspaper correspondent, writes to the
Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kansas:
When these lines reach the reader, April 22,
it will have been forty-four days since the Colum
bus raid, thirty-eight since the American army
invaded Mexico without the consent of the de facto
government, yet with the purpose—according to
Secretary Lansing—“to prevent intervention.”
While our Government, for reasons not satis
factorily explained, is concealing the exact num
ber of troops, their equipment, precisely where
they are and what they are doing, there are some
things that, by the grace of the military censor
ship, we are permitted to know.
We are permitted to know that a regiment of
negro cavalry is riding at the head of the expedi
tion; that, March 29, an American party, consist
ing chiefly of these negroes, “surprised” the town
of San Geronimo, killed sixty Mexicans, and were
congratulated by the President of the United
States for their exploit. We are permitted to
know that, three days later, April 1, the same
negro regiment, the Tenth, “surprised” the vil
lage of Aguas Calientes and killed between thirty
and forty Mexicans.
The report says that the dead Mexicans were
Villistas. How our black riders knew them for
Villistas we are not told. Villistas do not wear
distinctive uniforms. They do not carry a flag.
There was no parlay, no call to surrender. In
each case it was a “surprise”—and a massacre.
That the Mexicans were not in a position to
offer resistance, is proven by the fact that there
was no resistance —no battle. Not a single Amer
ican was killed in either “engagement.” In the
second, not one was wounded. Four were re
ported wounded in the first, but none sp seriously
as to make a trip to the hospital necessary.
Were these four negro cavalrymen wounded by
Mexicans, or by accidents incident to the chase?
Did the Mexicans have guns? If so, isn’t it likely
that at least one American would have been
killed?
Great God! What is really happening in
Mexico? Are our black dogs of war running
amuck, slaking their blood-lust upon unarmed
natives?
If you will examine a map of Mexico, and
locate Parral, you will find that it is farther
South than Villa has even been rumored to
have gone.
That territory is in the control of the Car
ranza government which ours recognized.
Then, what purpose carried our soldiers in
on General Carranza?
President Wilson's new scholar, Secretary
Baker, declared to the world that “There is
no intention of entering Mexico in force.”
In like manner, our Government in 1898
assured the world that the Spanish war was
not intended to add one acre to our territory.
We bitterly realize the hypocrisy of the
McKinley assurance: is Wilson’s taken from
the same repertory of deceit ?
Not our intention to enter Mexico “in
force?”
Yet we start in with 8,000 troops, and put
brutal negroes in the lead; and these black
ruffians enter undefended towns, shoot down
unarmed citizens, and the officers report the
victims as “Villistas.”
THE JEFFERSONIAN
How does anybody know that they were
Villistas?
Even had they been, were our troops sent
into Mexico to murder every Mexican who
had been a follower of Villa?
Did the massacre of these unarmed civilians
expedite the capture of Villa?
M as it the intention of President Wilson
and his new scholar that the negro troops
should pot Mexicans at pleasure, to inspire
terror and to arouse the CARRANZA
FORCES to an uncontrollable pitch of fury?
I hat of course would mean Intervention—-
so eagerly desired by Senator Fall, Cardinal
(ribbons, Archbishop Blenk, John Hayes
Hammond, the Giiggenheims, the Standard
Oil trust, and that owner of the million-acre
Mexican ranch. William R. Hearst.
The Battle of Parral!
V ho will ever know the truth about it?
What American will ever hear the Mexican
account of it?
Read the following special to the New York
World, and see how completely it contradicts
the wildly incredible stories which the South
ern dailies have told their readers:
U. S. Officer Said to Have Admitted Making a
Mistake in Entering Parral.
Mexico City, April 16 (delayed).—The War
Office received a dispatch tonight in which fur
ther details are given of the Parral affair. The
dispatch follows:
“General Ismael Lozano, accompanied by Gen
erals Garcia and Hernandez, put an end to the
trouble at Parral and persuaded the American
troops to retire to the outskirts of that city, where
they were followed by the hostile populace. At
this point the American Colonel in charge of the
First Regiment asked for a conference, which was
held at the Village of Santa Cruz Villegas, be
tween the American Colonel and the municipal
President.
“The American army officer admitted he had
entered the city without permission, but claimed
he had sent an orderly from the town of Zara
gosa requesting permission to enter, and that,
receiving no answer and the orderly not returning',
he went to investigate.
“The American officer expressed regret at what
had happened, and the American troops and the
Constitutionalists are working in complete har
mony.
“The Americans will not move further South
until the result of the interchange of notes be
tween Mexico and Washington becomes known.”
After all, the truth seems to be that the
agreement made between Carranza and Presi
dent Wilson, was broken by our officers.
That agreement was, that no American
soldiers should enter Mexican towns, without
the permission of the authorities.
All of us remember that such an agreement
w r as made in writing, and that our officers
were aware of it.
Yet, in the Parral case, nobody has pro
duced an iota of evidence to show’ that the
municipal authorities were consulted at all,
before the armed cavalry rode into the public
square of the town.
General Obregon’s brief and well-tempered
report states this, (as w T e show’ed last week)
and he is now corroborated by the dispatch
published in the New r York 7Foz7cZ, the organ
of the Wilson administration.
Major Tompkins is evidently the American
officer who was the cause of all that unneces
sary bloodshed.
He claims to have sent an orderly to re
quest the necessary permission, and that the
'non-return of the orderly convinced him that
the permission had been given.
Do our national destines hang upon such
frail, slender films as this?
Do the lives of American soldiers and of
Mexican citizens hang upon so uncertain a
thread?
The compact between the two governments
w as, that no Mexican tow n should be entered
by our invading soldiers, without the per
mission of the local authorities.
Nevertheless, Major Tompkins takes 7/5?
troops of cavalry into the town of Parral,
without the necessary permission, without
so much, as knowing that his **orderli/" had
asked for it!
Therefore, Major Tompkins broke the
plighted faith of his Government, disobeyed
the orders which his superiors were duty
bound to give him, and which his sending of
the orderly pro res that they did glee him.
Is peace or war to turn upon such slack
conduct as this? ~
Are we to hold Mexicans responsible, if
they resent an unprovoked and inexcusable
breach of national contract bv our own
officer ?
IT e are telling the whole world that GER
MAN I , ir/// not Keep its word.
X\ e are lecturing Germany, with the highest
degree of Princetonian academic severity.
We are so pleased with ourselves at the
knowledge of what we intend to say to Con
gress, about perfidious Germany.* that we
take our beautiful young second wife along,
to hear our newest essay on International
Humanity.
But as to Mexico, it's different.
International Humanitarianism is the ele
gant doctrine to be Princetonized into Ger
may; but when it comes to Mexico, we find
a convenient and helpless Belgium.
As to us, and the British, and the Neutral
universe generally, the German government
must practise the nicest conformity to the
highest principles of International law: but.
as to Mexico, the law which Germany gave to
Belgium is good enough for us.
“Scrap of paper?" Yes: a compact with
a weaker nation is always apt to be a scrap
of paper.
President V, ilson made his written compact
with President Carranza: the American officer
and his troops made it a scrap of paper: and
now’ our Army of 12,000 men have quit the
chase of \ ilia, hare intrenched, ami are now
ready for the chase of Carranza.
* •
Literature Against Romanism,
Condensed into Briefest Shape,
and Sold at Nominal Prices.
| I is my purpose to prepare a series of
4-page folders containing a short presen
tation of the main points against the foreign
church which is seeking to put the laws of a
foreign potentate above our Constitution and
our Statutes.
The first of those tracts is entitled—
“A RELIGION THAT YOU DO NOT
IJYLV7 7 .”
The price, is: Five copies for 5 cents: ten
copies for 10 cents; fifty copies for 40 cents;
100 copies for 75 cents: 1.000 copies for $5.00.
These tracts are of just the right size for
convenient use, in letters, in distribution on
trains, street-cars, at public meetings, in hotel
lobbies, and on the streets.
Men generally are too busy to read books:
therefore, the gist of the supremely impor
tant Roman Question must be put into such
form that the drummer can read it on the
cars; the artisan, during his rest time; the
merchant, when no customer is in his store,
and so on.
Now, my friends, this battle’ is yours, as
much as it is anybody's.
And w’hen I place the aummunition in such
convenient and low-priced shape that it comes
within reach of your finances, put your hand
to the oar and help us row’ the boat.
0
Watson’s Books on Sale in
Atlanta and Macon.
A complete line of Thos. E. Watson’s books are
on sale at Miller’s Book Store, in Atlanta; also at
Macon, with Brown’s Book Store. People in those
cities and vicinity would do well to call and look
them over, Jeffersonian Publishing Co.
PAGE FIVE
