Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1914 — No Effort Ought to Be Omitted to Prevent Catastrophe Like Intervention In Mexico [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

No Effort Ought to Be Omitted to Prevent Catastrophe Like Intervention In Mexico

By Former President WILLIAM H. TAFT

Those of us who have had experience in the tranquilizing of a tropical country, with a people not very different from the Mexicans, who take naturallv to guerrilla warfare and who would rather fight than work—that V WOULD RATHER EIGHT AND RUN THAN WORK—know the difficulties that an armv would have to meet to accomplish the only purpose that we would have in going in—to wit, the bringing about of law and order. It would involve the garriEoning with a sufficient force of every town. It would involve the organization of columns to CHASE THE GUERRILLAS INTO THEIR MOUNTAIN FASTNESSES ANI) ACROSS TRACKLESS DESERT PLAINS and the subjugation of, fifteen millions of people. « «? I DON’T KNOWiWHEN WE WOULD GET THROUGH, I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY LIVES IT WOULD INVOLVE, I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST, BUT I DO KNOW IT WOULD BE A DRAG ON US, AND THEN WHEN WE HAD GOT THE THING DONE THE FUTURE WOULD STILL BE DOUBTFUL AND STILL BE A CHARGE AND A BURDEN UPON OUR GOVERNMENT AND UPON OUR TREASURY. I DO NOT SPEAK THUS POSITIVELY WITHOUT SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT. NO EFFORT OUGHT TO BE OMITTED TO PREVENT A CATASTROPHE LIKE THIS.