Americans In Mexico.

New York Times 100 years ago today, June 21, 1913:
Order for Ignominious Retreat Not Conducive to Our Interest.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
    "An order was issued some time ago for Americans to leave Mexico. It has never been revoked."—Secretary Bryan to an American delegation.
    "Americans should leave Mexico and stay out of there until peace and order are restored,"—Senator Bacon, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
    Can any American conceive a more humiliating foreign policy for this nation?
    Is it possible that Secretary Bryan and Senator Bacon know what this programme would mean?
    Do they not realize that the very suggestion of such an ignominious retreat practically will remove the last thread of prestige from Americans and this country in Mexico?
    Is it possible that Washington does not understand that such an abandonment of Americans by their own Government will be taken by the lawless elements as official notice that they can abuse Americans and destroy their property with impunity?
    Under former normal conditions there were about 40,000 Americans in Mexico. Many of them have left the country during the last three years of trouble, but thousands remain who cannot leave.
    And why should they be compelled to do so? Has the day arrived when Americans must remain within the confines of our national territory if we expect to receive any help from our Government?
    Must Americans who have gone to Mexico when the country was at peace and invested their money and their labor in building up a business, developing a mine or a plantation, or in extending American trade, abandon their property to loot and begin a weary march over mountain and desert, to encounter almost certain danger of rebel and bandit attack?
    Has Americanism sunk to such a level that at the sign of danger we say to our nationals abroad: "Cut and run for home; we can do nothing to help you."
    Such a policy as is at present being displayed at Washington can have but one result.
    The United States must give up its ideas of continuing as a world power.
    We must cease to consider ourselves as a dominant factor in international affairs.
    We must withdraw into our provincial shell and go back into the middle of the last century.
    We must renounce our ideas of conquering foreign trade.
    When Americans abroad are in danger we will not say to the nation that should be responsible for their safety: "You protect them or we will."
    And, particularly, such a red-blooded policy would be impossible with a Government with which we were not exchanging formal correspondence.
    The attitude of the United States actually has encouraged revolution in Mexico.
    It has emboldened rebels and bandits to attack Americans who would have been safe if a robust announcement from Washington had warned them that they did such things at their personal peril.
    During the last two years of revolution in Mexico nearly a hundred Americans have been killed and their property to the value of many millions has been destroyed.
    I firmly believe that much of this loss of both life and property could have been saved by a firm policy from Washington that would have demanded protection for Americans and, failing to secure it, exacted prompt compensation for the injured and punishment for the offenders.
    There are some ideals of procedure, even for a republic, that simply do not apply when dealing with the rebel element of a country that, in a little more than two years, has overthrown an orderly and benevolent dictatorship, attempted to set up an ideal democracy, finished with that, and returned to military rule and still is fighting.
    Through the centuries Mexico has known nothing and respected nothing in government but one that could enforce its decrees by military force. And, since the great bulk of the people can appreciate nothing else at home, how futile it is to believe that a policy of consideration and humility from abroad would be considered anything but a display of weakness.
    American investments in Mexico total something upward of a billion dollars. The United States supplies something like 60 per cent. of all that Mexico imports. Of the eighty-eight countries with which the United States does business only seven buy more from us than Mexico.
    Just now we are paying compliments to Brazil because of the distinguished guest who is here, and we are talking of the importance of trade relations and the necessity of enlarging them.
    Our export business with Mexico is already twice as large as with Brazil and we are throwing it away. Mexico buys almost as much from us as we do from her. We take five times as much from Brazil as we sell in that country.
    American exports to Mexico are twice as great as to either China or the Philippines, and much larger than the exports to all the six nations of Central America combined.
    Mexico is our next door neighbor. We have been the next friend, business adviser, financier, the dominating factor, during all the great development there of the last quarter of a century.
    And now Washington, our own Government, tells us to get out, to drop the accumulations of a lifetime, to leave our property to certain ruin and destruction, to beat an ignominious retreat and allow the representatives of other nations to step in and fill our places in international business, in development, and in friendly intercourse, private and official. Get out and stay out until peace and order is restored! What will there be to go back to?
            PAUL HUDSON.
            New York, June 20, 1913.