Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1914 — STUDY OF VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, THE MAN OF THE HOUR IN MEXICO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STUDY OF VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, THE MAN OF THE HOUR IN MEXICO

First Chief of the Constitutionalists and Perhaps Soon de Facto President of the Republic Is a Remarkable Man in Many Respects—Was the Intellectual Godfather of Francisco Madero. ——-----

Washington, D. C.—ls Venustiano Pino Carranza, first chief of the constitutionalists and perhaps soon, de facto president of Mexico, were to put on strictly American drees and walk down the promenade of an American city no one meeting him would take him for a Mexican Spaniard. He is ruddy, but not swarthy, rugged of face, rather than fiery, full bearded* in the manner of many American physicians aged in the fifties or sixties. Behind spectacles which tell of nearsightedness shine gray eyes. But one must remember the Germanic hordes which poured upon the fertile fields of Spain in the middle ages. The fierce Goth is mirrored in Carranza. He is a Mexican of pure Spanish descent, but drawn from a race which entered Spain about the time the Angles and Saxons reached England. Carranza's instincts, nevertheless, are anti-Anglo-Saxon. His opposition to intervention has been firm and defiant To understand this man, whose shadow lengthens in the land of Mexico every day, it is necessary to understand his life of constant struggle toward a goal he now believes almost within reach. It is not generally realized that Carranza was the intellectual godfather of Francisco Madero. Now fifty-five years of age, he was much older than the martyred president. Madero was of the topmost circle of Mexican aris-

cisco Maderq, He sat at the feet of Carranza and drank in his discourses on the robbery of the peons’ lands. At was the opening of his eyes by Carranza which caused Madero to head the successful revolt which placed him in short-lived possession of the national palace. “Senator Carranza’s independence and his high ideals \in politics,” Madero once said, "caused me to support him in hie campaign for the governorship. I made speeches for him and contributea to the expenses of his campaign. The people wanted him for governor, but he was counted out. I saw then what the Diaz system meant I had taken nd active interest in politics up to that time, but then I realized that we could have no real self-government so long as the Diaz machine, or any other machine with the same purposes, was permitted to perpetuate itself. From that defeat of Carranza we went on to the national convention and the organization of the movement against Diaz."

Carranza refused the title of general under Madero, and he led his men without a regular rank. He is not a soldier by training, except the training of actual hostilities. He was secretary of state in the provisional government of Madero, for a time, but declined a cabinet office later. He had spent many years in Mexico City as a senator and knew what its graftinfested atmosphere meant. On Madero’s success, however, Carranza stood a third time for governor of Coahuila and was unanimously elected. This was in 1911. Madero had scarcely fallen when his preceptor raised me standard of revolt. Governor Carranza was the first leader to declare against Huerta. He gathered 10,000 men at Monclova and issued his famous declaration of principles, a time-honored part of the inauguration of any Latin-American revolt His battle-cry hae been "Give the land back to the people." Yet he would pursue more orderly and lawful methods than the rougher Francisco Villa.

Carranza is a stern, uncompromis.ing character/with the simple habits of the solitary frontiersman. He is a total abstainer from liquor and tobacco and rises at five o’clock every morning of his life. His six-foot figure is most commanding. He is a type that naturally dominates. The one side of his nature which is hard for Americans to understand is his cruelty in warfare. While not so ruthless as Villa and Zapata, he is wont to prefer the shooting squad as a punishment for minor offenses. There was Carlos Piza, a young mountaineer who joined Carranza about the time of his declaration against Huerta. Piza harassed the enemy unceasingly with his little band and did great service to the constitutionalist cause. But. in the Mexican style he looted the villages through which he passed. Carranza himself is given to extorting immense sums from wealthy Cientificos, but be was seeking to free his ranks from the charge of brigandage. So when it was found that young Piza had brought in 600 pesos from a certain village he was ordered to return the money. This he failed to de. Further, he grumbled and suggested to his followers that they take to the bush. Such conduct meant the end of discipline. General Carranza ordered the yourig man shot. Even after he was stood up against the adobe wall and the firing squad of twelve lined opposite, an appeal was sent to the first chief. The messenger brought back the command, "la Muerta,” and the rifles spoke. . , , A few hours later the chieftain wrote a sympathetic letter to the mother of the boy announcing his death and expressing grief at the necessity. /■/. "

tocracy, with enormous wealth. Carranza was a rancher of moderate estate. The first chief came of fighting riock. His father was a commander in the warfare which ended in the execution of the Emperor Maximilian. Around his father’s board he heard words'which might have meant death if uttered in public. As a young man be became strongly impressed with the wrongs of the peon. He studied law in Coahuila, the state where he was born. In combination of intellectual life and existence, it has been remarked, he closely resembles Theodore Roosevelt. Twice he boldly offered himself at the polls as a candidate for the governorship of Coahuila against a man backed by Porfirio Diaz. Diaz sent envoys to warn, andXeton threaten him, but was afraid to order his death on account of the loyalty of the people to the scholarly ranchdfo. Of course the Diaz candidate won in a walk-over with the polling places filled with soldiers. But the brave stand of Carranza had interested the young aristocrat, Fran-

“We shall,” he once calmly announced, “execute anybody who recognizes a president unconstitutionally elected and directly or indirectly guilty of participation in the murder of Madero.” . Carranza is the most reserved of the Mexican leaders. Hirf personal attendants co-operate with him to keep annoying questioners away. Yet he has long endured the hardships of ths field and proved himself a hardy specimen of middle age. Last autumn he made a 1,300-mile journey on horseback and muleback along mountain trails through Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora, with the danger of an ambush confronting him at every turning. Hie

lack of fear ie fatalistic, his friends say. His military secretary, Capt Espinosa Mireles, recently declared: “He believes, like Napoleon, that the bullet which will kill him has not yet been molded.” Time and,again in battle, with the federal bullets whistling about him, he has called his secretary to hie side and in spite of protests against imperiling a life so valuable to his country has calmly dictated his correspondence.

Gen. Venustiano Carranza.

Gen. Carranza Dictating to Secretary.