Intervention Means Vast Cost To Nation.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 16, 1913:
Would Call for 200,000 Soldiers and Expenditure of $1,000,000 a Day, Taft Is Told.
STRONG WAR PARTY ACTIVE
Army and Navy Journal Fears an Explosion and Troubles Due to Failure to Prepare.
    The leading editorial article in The Army and Navy Journal, issued yesterday, is entitled "Mexico," and it begins with the somewhat caustic remark that there seems to be but one way to teach the American people to prepare for war, and "that is after the manner of Hawaiians, who throw their children into the water to teach them how to swim."
    "The facts presented by experts familiar with the requirements of war," it says, "are unheeded, their arguments deducing the future from the past, as Patrick Henry did, fall on deaf ears, while certain college Presidents and professors, dazzled by the glitter of Carnegie gold, have entered upon a propaganda of sentimental misrepresentation to mislead the people and perplex their representatives at Washington.
    "Meanwhile the question of interference in the affairs of Mexico, which means war, trembles in the balance. Strenuous efforts have been made and continue to be made by the executive authorities to find some way of escaping war, this even going to the extent of concealing or minimizing outrages upon Americans, especially delicate American women, which, were they realized to the full extent of their atrocity, would 'stir a fever in the blood of age and make the infant sinews strong as steel.'
    "We question whether the country would approve the Presidential system of bookkeeping in the matter of Mexican atrocities if they understood it, for public sentiment takes small account of risks and dangers when it comes to protecting our women against a fate far worse than death. Those who knew the facts would not be disposed to include the honor of their mothers and daughters, which involves the honor of their country, in an equation that seeks to cipher out how much treasure and how much risk to the lives of our soldiers it is worth.
    "Any day we may have an explosion such as that which followed the firing upon Fort Sumter in 1861 and the sinking of the Maine in 1898. It is through such means that war comes and not through the machinations of military men or the conspiracies of arms manufacturers.

What Intervention Would Mean.
    "There is a strong influence urgent for war operative at Washington, and it is reinforced by the complaints of foreign Governments justly solicitous for the safety of their citizens and the security of their property. After representatives of the war party, as we may call them, had urged their opinions upon the President, he sent for one of his military advisers and asked him what a war with our neighbor of Mexico would require. The answer was 200,000 men for two years and a half and the expenditure of a million dollars a day.
    " 'Why,' exclaimed Mr. Taft 'they told me that it would cost but five millions and would be over in thirty days.'
    "We know of no military authority that does not regard the first estimate as conservative, and many estimates go far beyond this. We might send a relief expedition, but under international law this would have to be confined to a column of sailors and marines. The landing of our soldiers in Mexico would be in effect a declaration of war, with all its consequences, and a relief expedition could secure safety at only some one or more points, while the whole of Mexico appears to be in the state of a saturated lump of sugar on the eve of dissolution."
    Up to the present time, The Journal states, it has received no reports of any aggressive actions against Americans as such. Though it adds: "In common with other foreigners, who have suffered to a lesser extent, they have been made the victims of the lawlessness rife in Mexico since Porfirio Diaz was driven into exile."
    Continuing, The Journal says:
    "If war comes, the burden will be upon us, and we shall enter upon it without adequate preparation and subject to a fire of criticisms from those whose unwillingness to listen to the advice of soldiers will not prompt them to treat with consideration any shortcomings for which the military men will be held responsible in the popular judgment. With Mexico added to our other burdens. Congress will have something to think of besides economy in expenditure. No one who counts adequately the cost desires war with Mexico, and no soldier will venture upon it until forced by the demand of an imperative public opinion, which is the master before whom we all bow.

Our Destiny to be Imperial.
    "It has ever been thus in the history of the American Republic, which has had greatness thrust upon it rather than achieved greatness. It would seem to be our manifest destiny to appear in the role of an imperial conqueror whether we will or no, and we cannot be prevented from fulfilling it by the laches of our legislators or the whining of the voluntary or the hired advocates of Christian Science methods of preventing war by ignoring it. They cannot prevent war, but they can increase its cost, in blood and treasure, as they have done in the past. "We trust that the special providence caring for children, fools, and the United States of America, is still operative.
    "One of the best conducted wars thus far to our credit is that with Mexico in 1848-1849. The fruits of that war were great, but this fact does not inspire in the American people any spirit of covetousness toward our neighbor, and nothing short of imperative necessity will lead to an interference in its affairs. We have in hand already perplexing problems sufficient to occupy the utmost energies of the present generation without going abroad looking for trouble. The ability we have shown thus far in assimilating alien peoples does not indicate that our digestion is equal to the task of absorbing the mixed population of Mexico. But some way will have to be found to prevent that great country from lapsing into anarchy."
    The Journal ventures the opinion that there can be no question that intervention in Mexico will gravely complicate the relations of the United States with all the Latin-American States. It adds that whatever we may be called upon to do it would be "unquestionably wise" to justify our course toward Mexico, whatever that course may be, to the other Latin-American Governments and to make it clear to those Governments that the United States is not entering upon a course of aggression upon its neighbors.