REIGN OF TERROR IN MEXICO

Evening Star, Issue 16050, 29 February 1916, Page 2

REIGN OF TERROR IN MEXICO

VILLA IN “A CAMPAIGN OF - HATE.” [SfEotALLS Written for the • Star.’] Daily the situation in Mexico appears to be coming more intolerable, and every day new diabolical outrages are being chronicled in the American Press. Francisco Villa, the bandit chief, now in Western Chihuahua defying the forces of the Carranza Government, is using the cry “Remember Orozco” to stir up hatred against Americans and gain recruits for himself, according to foreigners who have reached the border near El Paso in Texas. General Orozco was Villa’s most formidable foe until the latter drove him across' the border into the United States after the battle of Ojinaga, nearly two years ago. Orozco was shot and killed last September in the high Lonesome mountains, on this side of the boundary, some time after he had forfeited the bond under which he was being held as a violator of United States neutrality laws. Villa, taking advantage of the circumstances of Qrczco’s death, is declared to be using his name as a rallying cry for new reemits. Western Chihuahua was the home of Orozco, as well as that of Villa, and the dead leader had a large following, which is said to have been highly inflamed recently when Villa informed them that Orozco had been murdered in Texas by Americans. The reports were brought to the oordar by foreigners who were in Chihuahua City during the trying period just before and after Villa evacuated the capital. They | declared that the Carranza army remained '■ a short distance out of the city for 43 ' hours while Villa prepared to abandon ike 1 place. Reports were current at the time,' that Villa was to be allowed to escape. Thirty-six Americans wore herded into prison just before Villa left the city, a number of Chinese were shot, and the stores belonging to them and to Japanese merchants were looted and burned. Villa made a point, they said, of not threatening Englishmen and Germans. The bandit chief announced that he intended to hold the Americans until they paid over i 30.000 dollars, but they were finally released when Villa was told that freeing them was the only condition under which he would be, allowed to enter the United States if he were forced to flee northward. WAR AVIATOR IN MEXICO EXPOSES VILLA’S CRUELTIES. Some insight into the infamous outrages perpetrated in Mexico by the archbandit Francisco Villa have just been related at ,San Francisco by .William A. Larakey, a war aviator, who recently returned from .Mexico, where ho had been engaged by Villa to instruct a party of Mexican airmen in the art of successful flying. In his narrative, which has caused considerable comment throughout the United States, Lamkey says : At one of the nightly trials, in Villa’s car, I saw the general suddenly flare up with anger at a phrase spoken by one of the prisoners—an old, grey-haired man who appeared not to be afraid of Villa or anybody else. Villa leaped forward from his seat with the full weight of his 2101b of bone and muscle, seized the old man by 'the arm, and shook him to and fro as a terrier might shake a rat. But he did not scare that customer. When he released him with a growled command to “ Stand aside ’’—the equivalent of a death sentence —the white-haired prisoner stood Ann for an instant, and replied with a straight look of dignity equal to Villa’s own. Then he vyaiked firmly down the stairs and took his place among the condemned. I never learned what he was charged with, but I think selling food to Obregon, after ho had denied it to Villa. Villa never forgave the Mexicans who were not loyal to him. — A Swift Execution.— Wo talked for a week about another poor fellow who was haled before Villa and completely lost control of himself. Never bare 1 seen a man in such a panic —quivering, white, so weak as they dragged him up the stairs that the guards had to lug him along. He could not reply to Villa’s first questions. The" general grew very angry, glared, and'roared like a bull. Then suddenly the man found his voice—not in words, but in a queer cracked shriek. At the same time, his muscles strung themselves up taut, and he leaped like a flash out from- between the guards, over the gilded rear platform of the observation car, and down to the track. The officers looked hastily at Villa. Villa nodded. I never saw anything so quick. A dozen long-barrelled revolvers flashed out in the half-darkness, and the man, 20ft away, fell on his face and slid along on the cinders and ties, leaving a rubbed trail of blood. He was dead anyhow but the seraeant of the guard stepped up, put the Barrel of his gun against the man’s head, and blew out his brains.

—The Condemned Boy.— My own sympathies were greatly aroused one night by the case of a boy— ! a mere kid, is or 16 years old, not large for his ago, either. I had seen nobody for weeks except grown men whose features were stern, and I suppose I was the more impressed by the unformed, round look of childhood still on the face of the kid. And he was scared almost to the point where execution wasn’t necessary. He had been caught selling horses to an Obregon agent. His father had some stock concealed back in the hills; Villa had suspected it, and had had a watch put on the roads. The kid, probably obeying his father’s orders, had delivered ■the horses safely to the Obregon agent. Horses were at a premium. Then he had returned to get the money, and had been trapped and captured. They brought him before the terrible Villa, of whom he had heard such grim stories. The boy was sobbing and as pale as a sheet. When Villa spoke he did not dare bo lift his eyes. Then. I saw big drops of sweat break out on his forehead and run down over his face. Villa made short work of it- He growled out a few abrupt questions and jerked out the dread order : 11 Stand aside !’ ’ They took the bey 1 down and lined him up with the others who were to be shot in the morning. The kid certainly did not know what was happening. —How it Ended.— I could not get the boy’s face out of my mind. I 4id not sleep that nights Early in the morning I resolved to join the execution party and see the thing through. I might have a chance to say a word to the kid, I- thought, and ease him through a. little. There was time before I should make my morning flight. I put on my clothes and went out into the dawn. They were just loading the prisoners into the big 1914 Packard touring car, and I crowded in too, the sergeant recognising me and nodding. My friend, the condemned boy, was sitting between two doomed* men. One of them had an a'rm around him. I was in the front seat, and had no chance to speak. They ran out into the hills about three miles, to a sort of canyon. The driver stopped the car and shut off the motor, and I saw up on the hillside a mass of shapeless, dark objects with birds flying around them—• and shuddered. They were the bodies of the men whom I had seen condemned on previous nights. They marched this party —only four, including the boy-up as close to the putrefying bodies as they could get conveniently. There were four men in I the firing party. There was no ceremony i about it. They simply took one of the i'men, ordered him to stand apart from the i rest, and fired at a distance of 15 or 20 feet. Alt aimed at his heart. The man ; dropped like a wet flour rack. The ser--1 geant stepped up nonchalantly, put the : pistol .to his head, and made certain of the j job. They- murdered the three men one j after the other, in about as many seconds. I Then .came the boy’s turn. I could nob | look. I turned my head away, and just i heard one scream—“ Di-i-i-os!”—that rang jin my head for many a day. Then the ] gunshots.

I 1 ROOSEVELT IN HIS BEST FORM. < “UNITED STATES ACTS THE COWARD’S PART.” Colonel Theodor© Roosevelt spoke upon ‘Promise and Performance in International Duty’ at the Academy of Music. Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday, January [ 30. Throughout Colonel Roosevelt had the 1 full sympathy of his 3,000 hearers. They I expressed this in hearty fashion at every . opportunity. Half of those present were women, and they seemed us enthusiastic as II the men. Both seemed to like best Roosevelt’s interpellations in his set speech. They stopped him with applause when he said: “A policy of milk and water on ' i our part encourages Other nations in a i policy of blood aud iron.'’ When the handclapping ceased he added: , j ' We have been of no use to the Belj giaus, the Armenians,'the Mexicans, or I anybody else The Government policy | has been “safety first.”_ It is the motto i of the men who jump into the lifeboat | ahead of the women and children. | Referring to “watchful waiting” in ; Mexico, Roosevelt read a report of the ■ post mortem examination on the 20 Amcri- : cans killed within a fortnight. The docu- ■ ment had reached him alter the speech : was written. In two cases the minute description, of wounds was given. It indij cated that the Mexicans had shot the ‘ Americans in the back and then shot them again repeatedly, and even bayoneted ; them. The audience listened in ominous j silence. “ And this is a pqople with whom | we are at peace,” said the colonel, as ho ! held tho statement over his head. He ex- ! plained that tho reports had been sent to ; him because the people of El Paso who j knew those who had suffered this wrong : did not know how to reach the “ popular i ear in tho East.” Again Roosevelt de- • parted from his manuscript to say what I he explained was a “ word on the personal side.” He said: They say I want war. But there is no one here who wants wax less. Wc have foul' boys, and they would go. The girls, too, would do their part hero at home. Perhaps I would go— (The crowd laughed as someone shouted : Why, sure !”) For this we dread war. But I say to you now that I'd rather they would go and were in their graves than flinch in doing their duty at the nation’s, call, Roosevelt struck a popular chord when he referred to the need of a “ real army,” , and explained : “ 1 say ‘ real ’ army in confratlist diction to a * colonial ’ army. We ■need a. real,army because foreign nations ; have no prejudice against doing to New York.and San Francisco what was done to Liege and Antwerp.” Recurring to the situation in Mexico, he said in impassioned tones: Our indignation must bo directed against the men of both parties who have been responsible lor our shirking our duty during the last five years. 1 wish that everyone would read tho great speeches of Senator Fall on this subject. For five years the representatives of our people at Washington have submitted to every species of infamy in Mexico, having allowed our men to be killed, our women to be violated, our property to he destroyed—not once, but again and again, in many hundreds of cases; and no effective steps of any land hav© been taken by our representatives during these entire five years. Our policy has meant untold suffering and bloodshed, not only for our people, but for other foreigners in ‘Mexico, and, above all, for the Mexicans themselves. For five years we have pursued a policy of both cowardice and infamy in the face of our duty towards .Mexico. So much for not making promises unless we intend to keep them. But, in addition to the intention of keeping them, we must have the power to make our action effective. ... In my judgment no nation really has a right to call itself a great nation unless in a great crisis it is willing to face the hazard and undergo the effort of taking action on behalf of others; on behalf of the .ideal of international good conduct, even although its own material interests are not involved. , . , The real enemies of preparedness are not the comparatively limited number of pacifists who openly announce that wo ought to Chinafy the country and turn the United States into the China of the Occident. These people are too silly to be convincing. The real enemies of our country are those indF victuals who advocate a half or rather a tenth measure of preparedness. The rest of this soul-stirring speech was i devoted. to the defence of his own position I —viz., that the United States must evolve j at citizen army on absolutely democratic , lines, after the manner of Switzerland, I Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and wound up with this effective peroration; I no more believe in permitting a man to volunteer to stay at home or refuse to , enlist in time of war than I believe in permitting him to volunteer not to pay his taxes in time of peace. One duty should be made as obligatory aa the 1 other; and no man should be allowed to shirk either. But the great benefit that’ would come from universal obligatory

training would be in time of peace. Our young men would be trained to a sense of solidarity, of social cohesion, 'selfrespect, of power to command and readiness to obey-, of orderly sense of duty, which would be invaluable in the industrial and social life in this nation. It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand on th'e heroiclevel, but no nation can bo called really great unless it can sometimes rise to a heroic mood. San Francisco, February 2.