Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1916 — How to Educate Mexico. [ARTICLE]

How to Educate Mexico.

The Lafayette Journal thinks that the most effective means of educating Mexico for the next few years will be with a gun and not a spelling book. This reminds us of the song that our soldiers in the Philippines used to sing after they had unsuccessfully tried the “slap your wrist” plan on .the Mindinaoes. It ran as follows: “Damn, damn, damn the insdrrectos, Cross-eyed, kackiak ladrones, And beneath the starry flag r Civilize them with a Krag, And return hs to our own Beloved homes.” Years ago an adage said “The only good Indian is a dead one.” There is a strong per cent of Indian blood in Mexico and harsh as it may seem, the hope of Mexico seems to lie in the killing off of a large number of its murderous bandit leaders. The Philippines quieted down and peace and prosperity and enlightenment exist in that country since the capture of Aguinaldo and the killing of the shiftless class who wanted to fight instead of work. Mexico is rich in natural resources and its poor and misguided people, victims of misrule for generations, think it owes them a living and they want to get a gun and go out and collect it. Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, now states of the United States, and with prosperity, good schools, business on a firm basis and its people happy, would yet have been in darkness if it had not been for the war of 1845 and 1848. What that war was worth to these states one would .now be worth to all of Mexico, where those who wish to enjoy peaceful pursuits are unable to do so owing to the bandit classes and the fact that there is no dependable government. The American flag flying from every hilltop in Mexico will be the only thing that will bring civilization to that coutnry and possibility to its benighted people.