The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1911. MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 63, 15 March 1911, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1911. MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES.

The action of the American Government in massing large bodies or troops on the Mexican frontier is frankly admittea by the Washington authorities to have another object than merely -manceuvres for the purpose of securing efficiency. It is intended to stop the exportation of arms and ammunition from Texas into Mexico,'and thus will serve as an aid to the Dijiz Government m suppressing the revolutionary movement which ha® now been in progress, intermittently, for some months. It is also considered probable that the massing of the American troops has been ordered with the idea of securing to the United.States the power of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine in case the revolution should result in the overthrow : of the Diaz Government, to the accompaniment of political and social disorder. The Monroe Doctrine ,lays down, "the principle that the United States caniwt allow any European Power directly to interfere with the internal affairs of ti^' Central or South American States. To put it bluntly, it is a r-otice of "Hands Off" to the European Powers. In Germany, it is ■well known, the Monroe Doctrine is not regarded; very favorably. Germany would vastly like, were it possible, to build up an oversea empire in South America; but although both Brazil and the Argentine Republic have alwaysi <been willing, enough to receive German immigrants, there is not the slightest doubt that any attempt on the part of Germany to dictate .to these States Or interfere with their affairs would be opposed by all the force of arms at their command. Indeed j it is very doubtful whether in Brazil and the Argentine the Monroe Doctrine is not regarded nowadays as an unnecessary paternal regard. The Latin American States, as we showed in an article in these columns a. few weeks ago, have grown so enormously in population, wealth and naval and military strength that they may well consider they are strong enough to defy European interference without any suggestion or aid from tbo great English-speaking nation in the north. With Mexico, however, the position is somewhat different. -Sh^lias undoubtedly made giant strides in commercial progress during. the past fifteen years.. It may- not be possible to approve of all the methods which have been employed by the consummately able, and determined—but, as his enemies assert, utterly unscrupulous—statesman who has now ruled Mexico, with but one slight interval of three years, since- 1876; but he cannot be fairly denied credit for having raised the State whose destinies he has so long controlled to a position of very substantial importance. Thousands of miles of railroads and telegraph lines have been constructed, law and order have been enforced through a countr/ where twenty or thirty years ago brigandage was rife, and, best proof of the success* which has attained his efforts to straighten out her tangled finances, is the fact that Mexican loans are now quoted and dealt in freely on all the leading stock exchanges of the world, and are floated on terms equally favorable to those upon which the borrowing operations of the principal European Governments are conducted. But Diaz is an old man, a very old man. He is now eighty-one years of age, arid cannot be expected to live much longer, or at least to retain that mental and physical capacity requisite in a ruler who exerts so great a personal power as he has exerted in Mexico for the past quarter of a century- "After us the deluge/ said Madame de Pompadour on an historic occasion, and it is considered more than merely possible th!at when the "old regime" of President Diaz ceases there will be a grave danger of Mexico's returning to that state of political chaos from which he so laudably rescued her. Not that Mexico does riot possess statesmen of ability. The Vice-President, Don Ramon Corral, for instance, who would automatically succeed Diaz if the latter died before his six years' term of office had expired, is said" to be an exceptionally able administrator, and there are several other men of outstanding ability. But the Diaz regime has been on the whole so purely personal, the President has so completely ! dominated the world of Mexican polf- ! tics, that undoubtedly for a time at least the political machine could not be expected to move very smoothly. j Nominally, Mexico enjoys a purely I democratic government. In reality Diaz is a Dictator, an autocrat. Each State has its Congress, but each State has also a Governor. It is Diaz who appoints the Governor, and it is the Diaz influence that is felt" right through every department of Mexican officialdom. Local disaffection there has been against this personal domination for many years past; but it is only within the 'rast six months that ifc has developed into open revolution. ' As.tb'vfche exact extent of the revolutionary movement it is difficult ; to obtain any reliable information; j but although twice or thrice we have been told that the revolution was T>ract;cally crushed, _ each time we j have had suclf news it has been fol- ; lowed later on by reports of fresh out- i breaks. In the good—or bad—old days of Mexican history revolutions were so frequent that the country was never actually free from political disorder: indeed, it has been estimated that between 1821 and 1876 ! Mexico witnessed no fewer than 220 •sjfßajq^no XxeuoT^njoAOJ airuttdas i

| Diaz, however, once he had firmly es- * tablished his power stamped out disaffection with so ruthless a hand that the old merry game of revolution lost its popularity. But when Dia-z dies, who shall say that the ancientf pastime may not be revived? This is evidently what is feared at Washington, and in view of the enormous amount of American capital invested in Mexico it is not surprising that President Taft and his Government should have decided to be ready for the worst, prepared to' interfere, if necessary, at a day's notice^ to prevent American commercial interests being injured. America is said to have no less than seventy millions of capital invested in Mexico. British capital similarly invested amounts to close upon forty millions. Great Britain is too far away to be able actively to interfere; but already, so the statement goes, the British Ambassador at Washington has requested the American Government to act in behalf of Great Britain in the defence of the latter's interests. In Germany, no doubt, there will_ be jealousy and suspicion of America's action; but with Great Britain an 3 the United States agreed on the matter, the Kaiser is impotent to do more than snarl, which already he is dome;, throuerh the medium of his semi-official mouthpiece, the 3erlin Post. ■