Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1916 — MEXICO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEXICO

President \\ ilson has never wanted war. In the days when his o|>i>o-' nents attacked him and tried to goad him into the use of the armed forces of the United States, he remained steadlast to his determination that the blood of young American soldiers should never be shed except as the last recourse in the effort to uphold the honor of the nation. Once, when even graver eventualities were threatened, the patience of President Wilson’s statesmanship was rewarded by diplomatic victory that made the shedding of blood unnecessary. If was the President's previous moderation that gave such force to the ominous ultimatum which brought full concession to the rights of America and humanity. No President in the history of the United States has ever placed the cause of the people of the United States upon a higher plane. No President has ever struggled more valiantly to preserve peace with honor. His critics have proved the instructors at the Monnett School for unanimous approval of his present course has not dulled the edge of his desire for honorable peace. The immovability of the President in the face of selfish and partisan criticism, cbming from those who thought more of personal advantage than of the welfare of the nation, has been the best security of the American people throughout the time the world has been darkened by war clouds. If the sword of righteousness must now be unsheathed, the American people know that it is because peaceful means have been exhausted. If the sword is raised to strike, it is because the head of the de facto government of Mexico to respect the rights of America. No President has ever tried so

hard to interpret the real spirit of America. Mr. Wilson has said that he would rather (know what the men and women, gathered around their own fireside, ire saying than to listen to the orations of the self-appointed. In his handling of the Mexican problem, President Wilson has been guided by the single impulse to do what the American people would have him do —to exhaust all the peaceful means at his disposal to protect the lives and property of Americans, and, failing in that, to uphold the honor and dignity of the nation by the use of its armed forces. The note written by the state department to Oeneral Carranza in response to his threat to attack the American troops presented the complete case of the American government against Mexico. As in the European situation, when the ultimatum with its ominous note brought full concessions, it marked the end of President Wilson’s patience. The lives of the American soldiers in Mexico, soldiers who were sent there to protect the border from the raids of bandits, bent on murdering Americans, had been threatened. In the might of righteousness, the sword of America was then raised to strike, and in the struggle that threatens, the nation enters upon its task with a clean and fearless heart. Rohind the President, who has so truly represented the charitable spirit of the American people, behind the President now in his grim determination to use the full military and naval strength of the nation in support of the American troops in Mexico, stand the mighty host of patriotic Americans, united, valient and conscious of the faithfulness of their leader to the ideals of real Americanism.