Lind Has Definite Mission.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 15, 1913:
Wilson Sent Him to Mexico City with Written Instructions.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Aug. 14.— For the first time since John Lind's departure for Mexico City it was admitted in official circles to-day that President Wilson had a definite programme for settlement of the Mexican situation; that it had been committed to writing, and that it had been intrusted to Mr. Lind to carry out. That statement, which The Times correspondent obtained today from the highest sources, confirmed what had been said in these dispatches and cleared up in an official way the vagueness that had surrounded Mr. Lind's mission.
    This uncertainty had been due, to a large extent, to the reticence displayed by men in a position to know the Administration's intentions. What they said tended to create the impression that the Administration had not made up its mind what to propose and had sent Mr. Lind to Mexico in the hope that conditions would shape themselves so as to enable him to make suggestions resulting in peace.

Went for Specific Purpose.
    It now appears that Mr. Lind was not sent to Mexico on an uncertain errand. He went there knowing President Wilson had a plan for restoring order, and his instructions were in writing.
    Members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations who went to the White House on Saturday night came away with the impression that the Administration had no plan and that all it had in mind was to drift and hope. An explanation of that is that they confused the explanation that no proposal had been made to the Mexican Government with the idea that no proposal was to be made. None had been made then.
    The Senators formed the theory that the United States ultimately would tell President Huerta his Government would not be recognized; would suggest that this Government expected him to adhere to his reported promise not to be a candidate for President in the constitutional election to be held when the present Provisional Government had ceased to exist, and would hope that an armistice would be agreed on, pending such election of a President and Congress.
    There is reason to think from what was said to-day, that the Senators' theory is right. It was admitted developments might change the details of the American proposition, but a flat intimation was given that there was no intention of abandoning the principles.

Huerta's Intention Uncertain.
    The Administration has no definite information that Gen. Huerta ever made a formal promise not to be a candidate. The understanding is based on Mexican press dispatches sent when he assumed the Government. There is evidence that after the conference between Huerta and Gen. Felix Diaz in the American Embassy in Mexico City immediately following the overthrow of President Madero, close friends of Huerta intimated he had made a promise not to be a candidate for Constitutional President. Huerta has not been communicative on the subject lately. The latest advices from Mexico City made it appear he was determined not to retire from the Provisional Presidency as long as the war lasted.