Huerta's Removal Essential To Peace.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 30, 1913:
Braniff, His Friend, Starts for Mexico City to Urge the Provisional Ruler to Resign.
PRESIDENT WILSON IS FIRM
Won't Recognize Madero's Slayer — Vasquez Tagle Mentioned to Head Administration.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 20.— All the developments in the Mexican situation here to-day were confirmatory of the statements in a Washington dispatch sent to The Times last night that efforts were being made to bring about a restoration of normal conditions in Mexico through inducing President Huerta to retire from office and permit the installation of a provisional President who would be satisfactory to the warring factions. Friends of Gen. Huerta who have been making an investigation in this city, have ascertained that President Wilson is opposed to recognition of the Huerta Government on account of the circumstances through which, it came into power. In the knowledge that Mr. Wilson is obdurate in his refusal to listen to suggestions that Huerta receive formal recognition from this Government, the men who are working here and in Mexico toward a restoration of peace have leached the conclusion that the easiest escape from the difficulty is to appeal to Huerta to step down and out.
    Perhaps the most important development to-day was the departure for Mexico City of Oscar .T. Braniff, a friend of Huerta, who was sent to this country, according to the understanding in official circles, as Huerta's personal and financial representative. Mr. Braniff, after being in New York several months, came to Washington recently, and in the last few days has had conferences with Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador to Mexico, who arrived here last Saturday morning.

Thinks Intervention May Come.
    It is understood Mr. Braniff learned enough yesterday to convince him that if the present status of Mexican affairs did not change the Government of the United States would be forced to adopt a policy of intervention. Although he declined to say why he was returning to Mexico, no doubt is felt in the best-informed quarters here that he has gone to make a report to Huerta that should convince the Provisional President that his retention in power is the stumbling block in the way of a settlement of the troubles that gradually are bringing financial and industrial ruin on the southern republic.
    Meanwhile an effort has been begun to select a prominent Mexican public man who will be accepted by the Huertistas and the Constitutionalists as Huerta's successor until Constitutional elections can be held for choosing a new President and a- Congress. The name of Vasquez Tagle who was Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of President Madero, has been mentioned. It is understood the suggestion of his name for the Provisional Presidency comes from Constitutionalist sources.
    The argument in favor of the selection of Vasquez Tagle is that he was the Constitutional successor to the Presidency after President Madero and Vice President Pino Suarez were killed last February. With Madero and Pino Suarez dead, the succession fell legitimately to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and after him to the Minister of the Interior. Pedro Lascurain was the Foreign Minister and Rafael Hernandez Minister of the Interior in the Madero Cabinet, but both resigned at the time Madero and Pino Suarez were forced to retire from office, just prior to the latter men's violet deaths.
    It is asserted, therefore, that Vasquez Tagle is entitled to the provisional Presidency as the man who was in direct line of succession to the Presidency after the deaths or resignations of the four chief officers of the Government who preceded him in official seniority. Telegrams are being exchanged to-day between the Constitutionalists' agents here and their leaders in Mexico, and it is reported that efforts are being made by the latter men to bring the suggestion of Vasquez Tagle's name to the attention of Huerta and his advisors.
    Vasquez Tagle is not in Mexico City. Nothing has appeared to indicate that he is obnoxious politically to the Huerta Government.

Committee to Hear Envoy.
    Ambassador Wilson had another conference in the State Department to-day with Secretary Bryan. He will appear to-morrow before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and it is thought he will be asked to express at length his views, not only in regard to present conditions in Mexico, but as to the remedies. Mr. Wilson has not received a hint that his resignation would be accepted by the President at the end of his present business here. His future movements are uncertain, but nothing is known in official circles to change the understanding there that he will not return to his post in a political capacity.
    The Washington Administration will mark time in the hope that the get-together efforts to ward the Huertistas and revolutionists will be successful. It is not thought likely President Wilson's mediation idea will be pressed as long as there is a chance that the programme which contemplates the retirement of Huerta and the installation of a Provisional President will be adopted. Officials of the Administration are fairly hopeful that the extra-official activities of persons who are supposed to have influence with Hxierta will be received with encouragement by him.
    Washington is swarming with persons interested in the Mexican affairs. Most of them have arrived since Ambassador Wilson came to the capital on Saturday. There has been a marked addition to the Constitutionalist forces, while business men and others who have much at stake in Mexico have served to swell the number of unofficial agents eager to get the facts of the situation or to use their influence to bring about mediation, intervention, recognition of Huerta, or his retirement from office, or any of the several things suggested. Among those who have come here in connection with Mexican affairs is Alfonso Madero, a brother of the slain President.
    At the meeting of the Committee on Foreign Relations this morning, there was only the most informal reference to Mexico. Until Ambassador Wilson is heard to-morrow, the committee is suspending judgment. Though one member of the committee may have seen a draft of the Ambassador's recommendations, the committee as a whole still is uninformed as to his views.

Senator's Sympathy for Rebels.
    Sympathy with the fight of the Mexican rebels was expressed to-day in a resolution introduced by Senator Sheppard of Texas, directing the Committee on Foreign Relations to report as to the wisdom of recognizing their belligerency. The resolution did not specify any faction, but it was supposed Mr. Sheppard meant the Constitutionalists under the nominal leadership of Gov. Carranza of Coahuila.
    Mr. Sheppard's resolution, which was referred without discussion to the Committee on Foreign Relations, ran:
    "Whereas. Every true American citizen feels an instinctive sympathy with any people who are pouring out their blood and treasure in order to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity; therefore be it
    Resolved. That the Committee on Foreign Relations is hereby requested to advise the Senate whether, in their opinion, this nation should recognize the belligerency of the revolutionists in Mexico and accord them the proper international status to which they may be entitled.
    That the President and Secretary of State, if not incompatible with the public interests, are hereby requested to lay before the Senate such information as they may possess as to the cause and progress of the present revolution in Mexico.

Wants Congress Inquiry.
    Representative Stephens of Texas presented in the House to-day a joint resolution calling for a general Congress investigation of the Mexican situation. Representative Smith of the same State proposed a joint resolution for the repeal of the act of March 14, 1912, by which the President was invested with power to prohibit the exportation of arms into any American country where disorder existed. The revolutionary representatives here are in favor of the Smith resolution.
    Charles Biesel and Bernard McDonald, the mine managers arrested by Federal troops in Chihuahua and reported to be under sentence of death, have been ordered released by President Huerta, according to a statement made to Secretary Bryan by the Mexican Embassy today.