Marines Are Sent To Curb Dominicans.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 25, 1912:
Rebels Are Interfering with the Customs Collection and President Taft Takes Swift Action.
INQUIRY COMMISSION ALSO
Our Position as Arbiter of the Boundary Dispute Also a Good Reason for This Course, It Is Said.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.— President Taft has decided to take a hand in the situation in Santo Domingo, and to that end has directed that a special commission and a battalion of marines be sent to the Dominican-Haytian border where lawless conditions have interfered with the collection of customs under the direction of the American Government. The Commissioners, who are Brig. Gen. Frank McIntyre, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs in the War Department, and William Tecumseh Sherman Doyle, Chief of Division of Latin-American Affairs in the State Department, will sail Friday from Philadelphia on the transport Prairie, together with the marines.
    In taking this action, which follows fast on the warning given to Nicaragua, the President assumes sole authority from the fact that the United States Government is acting as mediator in a boundary dispute between Santo Domingo and Hayti. More direct authority is found in the treaty arrangement between the United States and Santo Domingo for the collection and disbursement of customs.
    The President's decision to send a commission and marines to Santo Domingo was made while he was traveling through Pennsylvania, to-day. Under telegraphed orders from him Huntington Wilson, Acting Secretary of State, sent this dispatch to the Ministers at Port au Prince and Santo Domingo City:
    In view of its treaty relations to the Dominican Republic and to the collection of customs on the Dominican frontier, and in view of its position as mediator between the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Hayti regarding their boundary dispute, the Government of the United States has determined to regard as the provisional de facto boundary line between the two republics, without prejudice to the rights or obligations of either country and until a final settlement of the boundary controversy may be concluded, the line shown on the "map of Hayti and Santo Domingo prepared by the second military information division, General Staff, Washington, 1907 and 1908, on Monte Christi, Sheet 6, and Barahona, Sheet 7."
    In order that customs receipts may be properly safeguarded the War Department will issue instructions to the Receiver General of Dominican customs to re-establish and operate the border patrol, whose duty it shall be to see that the provisional line thus fixed is meantime respected.
    The chief trouble is at the Custom Houses at Dajabon and Commendado, which are in the hands of the Dominican rebels. The Custom Houses at Bonica, Terra Nueva, and Pedra Nalles have been abandoned, owing to the threatening revolutionary movements.
    During the two years, beginning April 1, 1905, that United States officials collected the customs, a boundary patrol was maintained with excellent results, but as this practice seemed to be a needless show of force, it was abandoned.
    The commission will consult with Minister Russell and Receiver General, Mr. Pulliam, on reaching Santo Domingo, and decide whether to use the marines to regain possession of the Custom Houses and establish a patrol on the border.
    The system of customs collection by the United States has worked excellently in Santo Domingo. Collections began two years before the Senate ratified the treaty. Up to July 31, 1912, there had been collected $19,984,559, most of which has gone to defray the running expenses of the Dominican Government, which has had a far larger revenue under the American administration of customs than it ever had before.
    The leaders of the present attempt at a revolution are Horacio Vasquez and Gen. Arias, and their movement has been incubating in Porto Rico and St. Thomas for more than a year.