" HOUSE AFIRE " IN MEXICO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 86, 11 April 1912, Page 7

" HOUSE AFIRE " IN MEXICO.

"I am against intervention," says Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, speaking of the state of anarchy in Mexico, "but* still it is just like having a house afire next door," Th© situation aDuld not have been more aptly described (says the San Francisco Chronicle). Mexico its our next-door neighbour, and certainly it is on fire. President Taft has refused to intervane in the affairs of Mexico further than to warn Americans not to enter that country and those now resident there to leave so soon as conditions threaten to become intolerable. That is the correct attitude for this country to assume. The invasion of the southern republic by American troops would be approved by our people only if it becoinefi necessary to protect the lives of our citizens. And yet — there is the "house afire next door." When a family in private life quarrels it is not ordinarily the business of neighbours to interfere. When' a people becomes restive because of the way in which ite government is administered, ib is not the province of outside nations to intervene. But when a country seems completely to have lost the power to take care of itself, when irresponsible bands roam its territory, burning and pillaging tho property of citizens and foreigners alike until there is no iecurity for anybody, a different question may seem to present itself. It is claimed by the Mexicans that they have_ a right to {settle their own troubles in their own wayj but, ac Charles Butters pointed out in an interview in ihe Chronicle, practically all of the important, industries in Mexico are in the hands of foreigners. So rich naturally is the country' that, hoping that the Diaz Government had brought stability and permanent security, foreign capital, especially from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France, has poured in like a great fertilising river till the barren land of a quarter of a century ago has blossomed and borne fruit. These investment are a very kgitimstter object of protection. Matters have, of course, not yet reached a pase where intervention by the United States is called for, and ib is to be hoped that they_ never will. Bub that they are drifting in that direction is a fact too obvious not to be noted. I fc js charged by the critics of Madero that he was indiscreet in his pre-election promises, and that the insurrection, against him grows out of a rich soil of discontent. But Madero has not had a freehand at any time since he took the mns of office. Zapata in the south and Gomez in the north, and others now in revolt, all at ono time were lieutenants of the President, but turned against him before he had had a chance to put into effect the policies on which he had been elected. It is idle to blink at th© fact that the United States may yet, for Mexico's sake as well as for our own, be forced to intervene to restore order. It would be an unpleasant task, attended by much expense, somo confusion, and not a little Ices of life. But if it is .forced upon us it may be set down as assured that the occupation will not be for a short time, but will be continued until the Mexicans become capable of governing themselves in orderly fashion.