Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1915 — MEXICO LOOKS IN VAIN FOR STRONG MAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEXICO LOOKS IN VAIN FOR STRONG MAN

lEXICO’S plight is more serious than it has been in the gloomiest days of Madero or Huerta. More than ever the prey to a thousand petty leaders, subject to the loot of wandering irregular troops, governed only by Chiefs having the allegiances of a section of the country, the intelligent men and women among her fifteen millions see no ray of sunshine, no Diaz or Juarez appearing to restore order

with a strong hand. Dispatches from the agents of the United States government to the officials there are not pleasant reading for the friends of Mexico. If there is one man of whom the Americans interested in Mexico have hope it is Antonio Villareal. He enlisted early in the cause of Carranza’s constitutionalists and was fighting steadily up to the date of the taking of Monterey, in the capture of which he assisted. Then he was appointed governor of Nuevo Leon. He was mentioned many times for his part in the conference at TOrreon, which followed the first open break between Carranza and Villa and later Carranza offered him the post of war minister. He acted as president of the second or Aguascallentes convention, it will be remembered. Carranza, when he began hiß short period of “glory” In Mexico City, made Villareal minister of finance, but Villareal became disgusted with the ineptitude of the Carranza crowd and resigned. Villareal is quiet and unassuming in manner, and this means more in Mexico than At would in the United States. He is thirty-eight years old, well educated, and speaks good English, having been a school teacher. When a youth he became involved in a dispute with a rival to a certain woman’s affections and killed him.

He served four years in the penitentiary. But with this he has the cleanest record of any man in Mexico who is in a positon of power. Villareal once was editor of a Spanish paper published in St. Louts. He is daring and at > the same time tactfuL He is not antagonistic toward Americans, either, and frequently goes out of his way to accommodate them. In his bold frankness and hatred of shams he is much more like an American than any of the other Mexican leaders. Carranza and Vtlla both like Villareal, and he is the only man they both like. While he has always protected foreigners and even forbade the publication of anti-American articles in Monterey, he was much hurt by the presence of American troops in Vera Cruz. This was the one thing which stood in the way of his approval of things American.

As to Villa, he has long ago become familiar in ability and character to Americans. He is a great military genius, but no civil executive, and he knows it. His game now is to be the power behind the throne —to rule through the de facto Mexico City president, Bulalio Gutierrez. If Villa ever attempts to occupy the presidential chair he will probably travel the reßt of the road of Diaz, Huerta and Carranza in short order. Before the present troubles started Gutierrez was a watchman employed by the big Mazipul 'Copper company at Zacatecas. This concern owns

factories, mines and* railroads. It is the property of Britishers.' Gutierrez made himself & power in the constitutionalist party rather by destroying property than by actual bard fighting. He became dictator of the Zacatecas district and set out to annoy his old employer, General Manager Percy Carr of the Mazipul Copper company, who, of course, had never heard of Gutierrez while the latter was a humble watchman. The copper company was the proprietor of the . railroad running to Zacatecas and had arranged a special train to take away the families of foreigners. As soon as Gutierrez heard of this he telephoned to Carr in Saltillo that Carr must pay him $27,000 for the privilege of running this train over Carr’s own railroad or else the soldiers of the ex-watchman would not let the cars pass. “If you don’t pay, and send the train through, you know what will happen,” said Gutierrez, and he could not have made his meaning clearer to Carr had he drawn his finger across his throat. > So Carr paid the money and the women and children, chiefly Americans, reached the border without hurt. ,■

Gutierrez’ specialty of ruining houses, bridges and railroads earned for him the title of “The Destroyer.” He never displayed any such military ability as Villa; but destruction is popular with the Mexican soldiery, it must be remembered. Gutierrez plundered and robbed with slight heed to-what Carranza and Villa were doing. He seized property of Americans and put it to his own purposes, while Carranza Ignored protests, despite his title of first chief. Last July he sent a demand to Carr, ordering him to resume all the Mazipul Industries at once. It must be remembered that the British company had been closed down for months. There was no fuel, no cars, no railroad tracks, and there was no financial basis. Yet the order from the exwatchman read to “start up the works, as North Mexico is now pacified and there is no excuse for delay.” It was a physical Impossibility, so Carr went to Carranza with a final protest. Carranza informed Carr he could delay resumption, and for this Gutierrez seized $300,000 worth of ore owned by the company and sought to sell it as contraband, in which he probably succeeded. Carranza has degenerated into the head of a band of looters. The scenes accompanying his eyacuation of Mexico City, it is learned, were disgraceful. The national treasury was robbed of all except about 200,000 pesos, which must have been overlooked. Every ounce of gold and silver in the mint was taken. Also there went printing presses, plates and the entire stock of bank note paper in the government printing offices. The public offices were stripped of fittings, inkstands, typewriters, furniture, rugs, carpets and curtains. Even the huge presidential chair in the National palace was crated and borne off. It is estimated that automobiles valued at three million pesos at leaat were taken out of the city, many of them commandeered from private citizens and foreigners. At the Buena Vista station of the Mexican railway train after, train drew out in the direc-

tion of Vera Cruz laden down with every conceivable sort of pluffder—motors, furniture, horses, pianos, paintings and safes. Even Huerta was out-Huertaed. The now ridiculous Carranza is set up at Vera Cruz. His cause is hopelessly lost. Among his remaining leaders, however, Gen. Alvaro Obregon looms large. He is undoubtedly a strong man. He has kept Gen. Lucio Blanco in line for Carranza and saw that the retreat from Mexico City was not an entire rout. Obregon is a plunderer like the rest. Another man who should not escape mention is Governor Jose Marla Maytorena of Sonora, whose men have been besieging the Carranza general, Hill, in Naco. In Sonora Maytorena is supreme and he is idolized by the Indians. He is not friendly toward Americans, and there is a well-defined conviction among the American army officers along the border that Maytorena could by a word have prevented the snipers’ bullets which killed and wounded 62 persons from coming over the international boundary line at Naco. So far he has confined himself to' the Northwest. If Maytorena ever decides to follow the path from the north of most of Mexico’s conquerors from the time of Juarez it may be with no mean army.