Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 196, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1915 — FACTS ABOUT MEXICO. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT MEXICO.

Indianapolis Star. The Philadelphia Public Ledger, believing that the American public should know the truth about Mexico and unable to reconcile the course of the administration with the facts that are known about conditions in the unhappy country, is publishing the reports of a special representative sent to investigate the situation. The first installment of the correspondent's story shows that Villa and his friends and associates, including •members of the Madero family, so often eulogized as idealists and highminded patriots, have been robbing the country for personal gain and for the purpose of raising money with which to buy arms. Notwithstanding the fact that the usual industries have come to a partial standstill, most of them to a complete one; that agriculture has, in many sections, been abandoned; that the people in many quarters are reduced to the starvation point, more than 10,000 car loads of Mexican products, mostly foodstuffs, were shipped out of the country, chiefly to American markets, during the eighteen months ending May 1, 1915, through El Paso alone. (The list includes 200 car loads of beans, a staple food among the peons, 2,308 car olads of cattle, 223 cars of beef, 122 cars of potatoes. Over a single railroad in the west —taken from American and English owners — more than 20,000,000 pounds of sugar, 7,000,000 pounds of tomatoes, 43,000,000 pounds of beans, 51,152 head of cattle were sent out of the country. In addition were 112,967 head of cattle on the hoof. Not a pound of freight crosses the northern border line but has paid its tribute to Villa. Much of the freight is said to be simply loot from the hapless producers, no thought being taken as to the products of the coming year. The figures given do not include heavy shipments of food and other products through other points than El Paso on the northern border and by way of gulf ports under the auspices of Carranza.

Meanwhile our government permits the shipment of arms and munitions into Mexico, and, according to a Washington official record, for the first month after the Taft embargo was raised, the shipments included 72,912 rifles, 34,808,186 rounds of cartridges, field artillery ammunition, 742,000 rounds; Hotchkiss and Gatling guns, 69, with minor munitions in proportion. The supplies since then, with .the exception of dressed meats, have not decreased and are being paid for, presumably, by the process of the loot. In May of this year the meats from Villa’s abattoirs in Jaurez were found by an honest United States government inspector to be unfit for American consumption and since then their importation has been forbidden. Ajid this ammunition will be used against American soldiers if they aw called upon to enforce peace m Mexico and our Red Cross is called on to feed starving Mexicans!