Quick Action On Dixon.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 28, 1913:
Washington Demands Speedy Trial of Mexicans Who Shot Him.
 Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 27.— The shooting of Charles B. Dixon, a United States Immigration Inspector, by Mexican Federal troops in Juarez, Mexico, has assumed an international importance that is significant of the growing tension between this Government and its Southern neighbor. Whereas such an affair always would be regarded as raising a serious issue between nations, the circumstances of the shooting of Inspector Dixon and the fact that it occurred at this time of bitter feeling against Americans among President Huerta's followers have served to invest it with all the characteristics of a case that is likely to have a marked effect on the relations of Mexico and the United States.
    Official reports to the State Department and the Department of Labor today bore out the press accounts of the shooting, although they were not given in such detail. The State Department acted quickly. At Secretary Bryan's direction instructions were telegraphed to Nelson O'Shaughnessy, Secretary of Embassy and Chargé d'Affaires of the United States at Mexico City, to demand the immediate arrest of those responsible for the shooting and their trial without delay. It was said in official circles that this meant that the United States Government expected the accused soldiers to be placed on trial as early as tomorrow. Mr. O'Shaughnessy was directed also to protest to the Mexican Government and demand an investigation and explanation of the affair.

Insists on Mexicans' Arrest.
    Instructions to repeat the demand for the arrest of those concerned in the shooting and make an investigation of all the circumstances were telegraphed also to Thomas D. Edwards, the United States Consul in Juarez. Mr. Edwards was directed to arrange for having Mr. Dixon released from arrest and taken across the Rio Grande to EI Paso, Tex., for medical treatment. The Department of Labor sent instructions to Chief Immigration Inspector Berkshire in El Paso to make a separate inquiry. It is thought the Department of Justice also will order an investigation.
    Before taking any action in regard to the case of Mr. Dixon officials of the State Department consulted Ambassador Wilson, and it is understood he made the original drafts of the messages sent to Chargé d'Affaires O'Shaughnessy and Consul Edwards in regard to the shooting of Inspector Dixon.
    Those dispatches, it was said, were sent to Secretary Bryan at his residence. Mr. Bryan regarded them as being couched in terms that were too strong, and he modified them somewhat and directed that they be sent to Mexico City and Juarez over his signature.

Protection of Biesel Ordered.
    In response to urgent requests from officers of the Mines Company of America, Secretary Bryan also sent a strong message to Mr. O'Shaughnessy directing him to prevent any drastic measures being taken by the Mexican Government against Charles Biesel, General Manager of the company, under arrest in Chihuahua. Mr. O'Shaughnessy, in addition, was instructed to insist that no harm should be done to Bernard McDonald, a British subject, General Manager of the San Patricio Mining and Milling Company, of Chihuahua, who was arrested when Mr. Biesel was taken into custody.
    A report from El Paso that Gen. Pascual Orozco of the Federal forces in Chihuahua had threatened to put Biesel to death caused the State Department to direct Mr. O'Shaughnessy to make strong representations to the Mexican Government. According to information received here, Mr. Biesel had requested Gen. Orozco to give him an escort for $400,000 in bullion which he desired to remove from Santa Rosalia, near Chihuahua. It is reported that Orozco agreed to provide the protection, but insisted that he should receive 5 per cent. of the value of the bullion — $20,000.
    Mr. Biesel is reported to have rejected Gen. Orozco's suggestion and to have endeavored to make arrangements with revolutionists to give him the guard desired. Orozco professed to have ascertained that Mr. Biesel was dealing with the insurgents and the manager's arrest followed. Mr. McDonald was with Mr. Biesel, and he, too, was seized.
    A dispatch was sent by the State Department to United States Consul Letcher in Chihuahua instructing him to make an investigation of the arrests and to do everything in his power to prevent any harm from being done to either prisoner.

Thinks Trouble Must End.
    What makes the shooting of Mr. Dixon of particular importance just now is that the Wilson Administration has come to the conclusion that something should be done by the United States to bring to an end the perturbed conditions in Mexico. The Dixon incident will serve to increase the friction that already was apparent in the dealings between this Government and that of President Huerta.
    Should the Huerta Government show a disinclination to give proper punishment to the soldiers who shot Inspector Dixon and who are reported to have been drunk at the time, or to treat the affair as an ordinary incident, it is hard to say what it may develop as far as American feeling and governmental policy are concerned. It was said to-night that it would be emphasized by the presentation of a resolution in the Senate tomorrow, calling on President Wilson for the facts and a statement as to what steps had been taken by him to procure redress for the effort to kill a United States official, and the seeming affront to the United States Government in that effort.
    Nothing occurred in Washington today beyond the representations made to the Huerta Government in regard to the shooting of Mr. Dixon to change the present Mexican situation in its bearing on the relations between the nations. Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador to Mexico, who arrived here yesterday from the Mexican capital to make a personal report of conditions in the republic, passed most of the day at a country club. He was in the State Department for half an hour, but did nothing there beyond reading dispatches from Consuls in Mexico. Mr. Wilson did not see Mr. Bryan, who was not in the department. It was arranged to-day that he should have his first interview with President Wilson at 2:30 o'clock to-morrow afternoon.

Messages Please Ambassador.
    The Ambassador was gratified by the tone of a flood of telegrams that came to him from American citizens in Mexico. Those were based on what he had said in New York on Friday and in Washington yesterday as to the Mexican situation. Sixty telegrams were received by the Ambassador, and they came from many places in Mexico. It was said they were all in the line of enthusiastic commendation of the Ambassador's assertion that there was no real revolution in Mexico.
    Friends of Ambassador Wilson say he is the only man of high official position concerned in the Mexican situation who has a definite policy for bringing about the restoration of peace and order. That he is prepared to make a stiff contest for the adoption of his views is understood among those friends. They say Mr. Wilson has everything at stake, and that he will not mince words in pointing out to President Wilson and Secretary Bryan the state of affairs in Mexico, in the hope that his more intimate knowledge of conditions in the country will convince them that he is right as to the methods to be pursued.
    From what the Ambassador said yesterday, it is apparent that he hears that the Washington Administration has been getting a mass of advice and description as to Mexican affairs that does not represent conditions as they are. He indicated also that he resented the supposed action of Secretary Bryan in sending ex-State Senator Francisco Del Valle of Los Angeles, Cal., to Mexico as a Special Commissioner for the purpose of making a separate report of the situation, and supposedly to ascertain what position the Ambassador occupied with reference to the contending factions.
    In the knowledge that President Wilson is considering a definite policy with a view of attempting to meet the Mexican situation, public men here are giving attention to the various methods that have been or are to be proposed for adoption by the President. Many of the suggestions made are regarded as impracticable, and have not been taken into serious account in the discussion now going on between officers of the Administration and Senators and Representatives in Congress.
    The main idea in President Wilson's mind is that the United States Government should offer its services as mediator between the Huerta Government and the factions that are opposing Huerta. The constitutionalist or revolutionary agents here have asserted that their party would not accept mediation, and telegrams from their leaders in Mexico have backed them up in this. Ambassador Wilson is credited with having said that the Huerta Government would decline to accept the services of the United States in a mediatory capacity, although he modified the statement originally attributed to him in that connection to the extent of saying that he had supposed the mediation suggested was of the character proposed last February by John Barrett, Director General of the Pan-American Union.
    Mr. Barrett's idea was that the offer of mediation should come from the United States and some of the Latin-American republics, acting jointly. Ambassador Wilson said last night that a mediation proposal would have no force unless it came from the President of the United States, but there seems to be no doubt that both the Huertistas and the Constitutionalists would he inclined in their present frame of mind to reject an offer from this Government to act as mediator.
    According to Senators and Representatives who profess to know his views President Wilson is giving consideration also to the question of suspending the privilege now given to the Huerta Government of importing arms, ammunition, and other munitions of war from the United States. The idea on which the suggestion of that action by the President is based is that it would leave the Huertistas and the Constitutionalists to fight it out among themselves without aid from this country.

Enemies on Equal Footing.
    The argument in support of the effectiveness of this method is that the Huertistas and the revolutionaries would be placed on an equal footing and that the struggle would be likely to terminate in a comparatively short time, with success to the side which was supported by the greater number of the male population of the republic. The Constitutionalists are greatly in favor of this plan, which they believe would help their cause materially.
    The answer to the argument is that with the ability of the Huerta Government to keep Vera Cruz and Tampico, its Gulf ports, free from interference by the revolutionists, it could import directly from Europe all the arms and war stores that it needed. This phase of the matter has been brought forward by men having some knowledge of the Mexican situation, who assert that Huerta has been placing orders in European countries for arms and ammunition, and is importing them regularly through Vera. Cruz.
    Another suggestion that has received consideration is that both the Federals and the Constitutionalists shall have the right of receiving munitions of war from the United States. That method is advocated by several members of Congress and by many American citizens living in Texas and Arizona who have interests in Mexico. The sympathies of those persons mainly is with the revolutionists. They assert that if there were no restrictions on the exportation of arms and ammunition from the United States for the use of the revolutionists the Huerta Government would pass in history in a very short time.
    In his two talks with Secretary Bryan yesterday Ambassador Wilson was not asked to suggest any method which he believed would be effective in bringing Mexico's trouble to an end. Nor did Mr. Wilson include in the statement which he prepared at Mr. Bryan's request for the information of President Wilson any discussion of what would be necessary, in his opinion, to restore law and order throughout the Southern republic.
    It is thought, however, that at the conference which he is to have with President Wilson to-morrow, or in subsequent conferences, the Ambassador will give expressions to his views as to the method or methods which he believes should be adopted by the United States in its future dealings with Mexico. If the President should not give him the opportunity of imparting his observation, experience, and thought along that line the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will bring out all he has in mind on the subject.

Would Blockade Ports.
    It is the understanding in Washington that the Ambassador is firmly convinced that, failing in other methods to produce conciliation, the United States Government should undertake a policy of "peaceable" intervention. That policy, a preliminary to which would be the removal of all American citizens from Mexican territory, contemplates a close blockade of all Mexican ports, as well as a patrol of the coast lines of the country and a use of the entire available American army to guard the border line between the United States and Mexico, and prevent the ingress or egress of individuals and the shipment of supplies of any character into Mexican territory.
    Although such a policy would have to be conducted under actual war conditions and doubtless would result in a declaration of war against the United States by the Huerta Government, at least, it might be conducted, it is contended, without much spilling of American blood. In a measure, it would be a starvation method of bringing about peace in Mexico, for it is contended that without supplies of any sort from the outside world the weaker side in the present hostilities soon would be obliged to succumb. This idea of intervention contemplates preventing any foreign country from sending supplies into Mexico.
    Further understanding of what Ambassador Wilson would like to propose is that before intervention of any character should be attempted an effort to bring about a restoration of normal conditions in Mexico should be made by the United States through the recognition of the Huerta Government under certain conditions that Huerta would be obliged to accept as preliminaries to recognition. One of these, and the main condition, would be that satisfactory assurances should be given by the Huerta Government of its ability to pacify the greater part of Mexico, the United States giving in return the assurance that whatever measures it might feel obliged to take to bring about the pacification of the smaller part of the country would not be followed in any circumstances by the accession of any Mexican territory to the United States.

Plans May Have Early Hearing.
    All the various plans suggested are expected to come up for consideration in the White House and the Capitol this week. President Wilson has shown that he did not care to make any change of policy toward Mexico unless he had the approval of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at least. Senators and Representatives are being sounded as to their opinion of the mediation proposal, and also the suggestion that the President should withdraw the privilege possessed by the Huerta Government of procuring munitions of war from the United States
    As to the idea of intervention, it always has been considered in the light of actual war with Mexico to compel the submission of all Mexican armed forces and the restoration of order through the services of an American, army of occupation and pacification. The proposal of peaceable intervention, the "bottling-up" policy, has not been taken formally to the attention of Senators and Representatives, and therefore there has been virtually no discussion of it.
    The proposal to recognize the Huerta Government has had only passing consideration in Washington, but that has been due to the fact mainly that no statement of the conditions under which it would be accomplished had been made. It has been the general understanding here that Ambassador Wilson merely wished ordinary recognition of the Huerta Administration as the de jure Government as well as de facto.