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SEPTEMBER," 1916
TKe Commoner
President Defends
Mexican Policy
The President's defense of his Mexican policy
is clear and convincing. Ho says:
"While Europe was at war our own continent,
one of our own neighbors, was shaken by revo
lution. In that matter, too, principle was plain
and it was imperative that we should live up to
it if we were to deserve the trust of any real
partisan of the right as free men see It. We
have professed to believe, and wo do believe,
that the people of small and weak states have
the right to expect to be dealt with exactly as
the people of big and powerful states would be.
We have acted uppn that principle in dealing
with tho people of .Mexico.
"Our recent pursuit of bandits into Mexican
territory was no violation of that principle. We
ventured to enter Mexican territory only because
there were no military forces in Mexico that
could protect our border from hostile attack and
our own people from violence, and we have com
mitted there no single act of hostility or inter
ference even with the sovereign authority of the
republic of Mexico herself,. It was a plain case
of the violation of our own sovereignty which
could not wait to be vindicated by damages and
for which there was no other remedy. The au
thorities of Mexico were powerless to prevent it.
"Many serious wrongs against the property,
many irreparable wrongs .against the persons, of
Americans have been committed within the ter
ritory of Mexico herself during this confused
revolution, wrongs which could not be effectually
checked so long as there was no constituted
power in Mexico which was in a position to
check them. . We could not act directly in that
matter ourselves without denying Mexicans the
right to any revolution at all which disturbed
us and making the emancipation of her own
people await our own interest and convenience.
"For it is their emancipation that they are
seeking, blindly "it maybe, atfd as yet inef
fectually, but with ' profound and passionate
purpose and within their unquestionable right,
apply what true -American principle you will,
any principle that an American would publicly
avow."
"The people of Mexico have not been suffered
to own their own country or direct their own
institutions. Outsiders, men out of other na
tions and with interests too often alien to their
own have dictated what their privileges and op
portunities should be and who should control
their land, their Jives, and their resources some
of them Americans, pressing for things they
could never have got in their own country.
"The Mexican people are entitled to attempt
their liberty from such influences; and so long
as I have anything to do with the action of our
great government I shall do everything in my
power to prevent any one standing in their way.
"I know that this is hard for some persons to
understand; but it is not hard for tho plain
people of the United States to understand. It
is hard doctrine only for those who wish to get
something for themselves out of Mexico.
"There are men, and noble women too, not a
few, of our own people, thank God, whose for
tunes are invested in great properties in Mex
ico, who yet see the case with true vision and
assess its Issues with true American feeling. The
rest can be left for the present out of the reck
oning until this enslaved people has had its day
of struggle toward the light.
"I have heard no one who was free from such
influences proposo interference by the United
States with the Internal affairs of Mexico. Cer
tainly no friend of the Mexican people has pro
posed it.
"The people of the United States are capable
of great sympathies and a noble pity in dealing
with problems of this.kind. As their spokesman
and representative, I have tried to act in the
spirit they would wish me to 'show.
"The people of Mexico are, -striving for the
rights that are fundamental o-l'ife and happi
ness 15,000,000 oppressed xRrvoverburdened
women and pitiful children .ij,irtual bondage
m their own home of fertile . la.n,ds, and inex
haustible treasure! Some of ith,e Readers of the
revolution may often have hepfl. .mistaken and
violent and selfish, but the revolution itself was
inevitable and is right. .;. "
'The unspeakable Huerta betrayed the very
comrades he served, traitorously overthrew the
government of which he waj4rusted part, im
pudently spoke for the very forces that had
drivea his people to the rebellion with which
he had pretended to sympathize. Tho men who
overcame him and drove him out represent at
least tho fierce passion of reconstruction which
lies at the very heart of liberty, and so long as
they represent, however imperfectly, such a
struggle for deliverance, I am ready to serve
thoir ends when I can.
"So long as the power of recognition rests
with me, the government of tho United States
will refuse to extend the hand of welcome to any
one who obtains power in a sister republic by
treachery -and violence. No permanency can bo
given the affairs of any republic by a title based
upon intrigue and assassination.
"I declared that to be the policy of this ad
ministration within three weeks after I assumed
the presidency. I here again vow it. I am more
interested in the fortunes of oppressed men and
pitiful women and children than in any property
right whatever. Mistakes I have no doubt made
in this perplexing business, but not in purpose
or object.
"More is involved than the immediate destin
ies of Mexico and the- relations of the United
States with a distressed and distracted people.
All America looks on. Test is now being made
of us whether we be sincere lovers of popular
liberty or not and are indeed to be trusted to
respect national sovereignty among our weaker
neighbors. We have undertaken these many
years to play bg brother to the republics of this
hemisphere. This is the day of our test whether
we mean, or have ever meant, to play that part
for our own benefit wholly or also for theirs.
Uppn the outcome of that test (its out
come in their minds, not in ours) depends
every relationship of the United States with
Latin America, whether in politics or in com
merce and enterprise. These are great issues
and lie at the heart of the gravest tasks of the
future, tasks both economic and political and
very intimately inwrought with many of the
most vital of the new issues of the politics of
the world. The republics of America have in
the last three years been drawing together in a
new spirit of accommodation, mutual under
standing, and. cordial co-operation. Much of the
politic pf the world in the years t6 come will
defend uuon their relationships with one an
other. It is a barren and provincial statesman
ship that loses sight of such things!"
No one can successfully attack the President's
Mexican policy whether it is attempted from the
standpoint of economics, politics or morals.
W. J. BRYAN.
The republican organs 'were fully agreed when
President Roosevelt stepped in to prevent the
strike of anthracite coal miners a number of
years ago that he was acting in an honest desire
to prevent a- situation that would menace the
comfort and business of the people. They are
also in complete accord in believing that Pres
ident Wilson was actuated, in his efforts to pre
vent a nation-wide strike of railroad employes,
by a desire to gain votes.
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"LITTLE STORIES OF HUMAN INTEREST.
ABOUT WILLIAM' JENNINGS BRYAN" . , ;
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ColumbusNebraska. .
CAMPAIGN LITERATURE
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