Our Mexican Policy.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 28, 1913:
    Cordial support of President Wilson's attitude upon the Mexican question, at this crisis, is inevitable and is right. He has acted according to his convictions, and in a spirit of broad humanity and exalted statesmanship. He has disregarded precedents in his friendly negotiations with the neighboring republic as he disregarded them yesterday in his appearance, personally, at a joint assemblage of both houses of Congress, to read his lucid and able message, setting forth the failure of the mission of mediation and his idea of the course the United States should pursue in regard to Mexico in the immediate future. But it should be said, at once, that while Mr. Wilson's message is an inspiring and candid document, reflecting, as Senator O'Gorman has said, "the sober thought of the nation" at this juncture, the reply of the Provisional Government of Mexico, through Mr. Gamboa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is also lucid and statesmanlike, free from rancor and pettiness. It is necessary to say this because the translation is obviously rude, verbal felicities in the Spanish language being exceedingly difficult to transfer into English. The repeated address, "Mr. Confidential Agent," though in the translated form it suggests irony, was never so intended by the writer.
    The whole strength of the Mexican reply rests on the assertions of the Foreign Secretary in contradiction of our Government's statement that no progress has been made toward the establishment in the Mexican capital of a government which may enjoy the respect and obedience of the people. Mr. Gamboa declares that of the twenty-seven States, three Territories, and one Federal District, constituting the Republic of Mexico, eighteen States, the three Territories, and the Federal District are absolutely under control, and that the Provisional Government has 80, 000 effective troops in the field. President Wilson, however, asserts in his message that while we have waited many months full of peril and anxiety for conditions in Mexico to improve, they have not improved but have grown worse; that "the territory in some sort controlled by the provisional authorities in Mexico City has grown smaller, not larger"; that the prospect of pacification has seemed to grow more and more remote, and that "those who claim to constitute the legitimate government have not made good their claim."
    The President's view of the situation, based, as it must be, on information from unprejudiced sources, we are all bound to accept. It cannot well be denied that "we are expected by the Powers of the world to act as Mexico's nearest friend." This is gracefully admitted by Mr. Gamboa who says that both European and American Governments made use of their good offices to the end that Mexico should accord a hearing to President Wilson's personal envoy, and Mr. Wilson himself makes known the fact that "several of the great Governments of the world have given this Government their generous moral support" in the effort toward mediation. The Mexicans, therefore, should not find it difficult to understand what our Government means when it says that "it does not find itself in the same case, with reference to the other nations of the earth, concerning what is happening and is likely to happen in Mexico. "Mr. Wilson may be justified in his belief that the American proposals were rejected "because the authorities at Mexico City had been grossly misinformed and misled and believed that the present Administration did not speak for the people of the United States. "Mexico now knows that Congress and the people stand firmly behind the President in his treatment of the Mexican question. But the workings of the Latin-American mind are not easy to comprehend, and it is not safe to conjecture what the next move of the provisional Government may be, or what effect the message of President Wilson may have upon the leaders of the revolt, who have been rather inactive of late, but have, assuredly, enjoyed, as the Mexican note intimates, too many opportunities to foment rebellion on our neutral soil.
    President Wilson adheres firmly to his policy of non-intervention. He counsels strict neutrality and will forbid the exportation of arms and munitions of war of any kind from the United States to Mexico. He would have us pledge ourselves to be partisans of no Mexican party, and insists that our Government shall not act as a virtual umpire between the contestants. It would be well, also, if the activities of the various rebel juntas in this country could be wholly suppressed. These suggestions are all reassuring. There can be no great danger of a serious rupture if they are lived up to. That the President realizes the danger of the situation, however, is indicated by his advice that all Americans in Mexico should be urged to leave the country at once and assisted to get away by every possible means; but there is assurance that the fortunes of those who cannot get away will be watched vigilantly and that those responsible for any loss or suffering they may incur will be "held to a definite reckoning." Negotiations for friendly mediation are open to resumption at any time. The President is convinced that "the steadying pressure" of moral force will soon break down the barriers, and that "we shall triumph as Mexico's friends sooner than we could triumph as her enemies."
    Mexico's friends we are, assuredly, and the best and most useful friends she has. But the gravity of the situation cannot be ignored. No progress whatever has been made in our efforts to lighten the burdens of a distracted country, but it will be felt throughout the world that our Government has held with commendable firmness to a humane and broadminded policy.