Mexico The Prey Of Many Factions.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 9, 1913:
Country Is Harassed by Independent Revolutions, Manager of Wrecked Plantation Says.
AMERICANS ARE BLAMED
Financiers In This Country Said to Have Promoted Uprisings to Force Our intervention.
    According to Pablo Hoffmann, general manager and part owner of the Hacienda Humboldt, a plantation of 75,000 acres in the State of Chihuahua, near the place where Gen. Orozco fought his last battle, the truth has never been told in this country about actual conditions in Mexico. Señor Hoffmann, who is on the way to Germany, is stopping at the Waldorf.
    "Since last August," he said, "nothing definite has been known of Orozco, though he is generally believed to be in the United States. Under Orozco, the foreigners were respected and discipline was maintained among the revolutionists, but since the end of August it has been quite a different matter, and foreigners are now being made to suffer.
    "The Orozquistas, as the followers of the missing leader call themselves, made many attempts to take me prisoner," he said, "One day in last September a band of forty swooped down on my plantation, damaged my house with dynamite, and cleaned out the entire place of everything portable, not overlooking what money I had.
    "I lost at that time, the manuscript of a work on 'Tropical and Sub-Tropical Agriculture,' of which one part has been published in Berlin. The material I had gathered for three volumes, representing 14 years of travel and study, was destroyed."
    Mr. Hoffmann, who is more than six feet tall and broad in proportion, bears a sabre scar on his left cheek. This he obtained in his student days at Goettingen.
    "I saved myself when my home in Mexico was attacked, after a lively scrimmage, by running for the river near by and swimming to the other side. It was some 400 metres wide, and I had the greatest difficulty in swimming, as I had been battered about the head and arms and body by blows from the guns of the revolutionists. Some of them took a parting shot at me as I swam, but missed me.
    "I hid from noon until night, when I managed to get a good horse, and rode to Ortiz, the nearest station on the railroad. I went to Chihuahua, the capital of the State, and applied to the Government for protection. They sent thirty-two soldiers back to my hacienda with me, and, thinking that I now had ample protection for my property, I bought new household goods.
    "Three weeks ago I left the hacienda and went to Mexico City, and from there came to New York. When I reached the Waldorf, the first thing handed to me was a telegram announcing that two bands of revolutionists, after a fight with the soldiers, had again captured my house and, after looting it, had burned it to the ground. Phillip Valles, the foreman, was killed. John Chuto, the book keeper, suffered a broken arm, and Oesterlink, one of the clerks, was taken prisoner, but was afterward released and returned safely to Chihuahua — probably after paying a ransom. My plantation had been abandoned, the telegram added.
    "In spite of this, I am full of hope for the future of Mexico and am in America to buy machinery to enlarge my packing house."
    Americans here have no idea of the state of things in Mexico, Mr. Hoffmann explained. There was not one great revolution, he said, but three, and other smaller ones, conducted on independent lines. Every little hamlet has a leader of its own, who terrorizes and pillages the neighborhood,
    "The states of Morelos, Pueblo and Mexico are overrun by the followers of Zapata," he said. "The most important question for these is the land question. Zapata helped to make Madero President and now he is fighting Madero. That shows what sort of fellows they are. Zapata has between 2,000 and 4,000 armed men, and can also have two or three times as many if he can get arms and ammunition for them.
    "In the states of Chihuahua and Sonora there are some 2,000 followers of Orozco. The other leaders, de la Fuente, Calaveo, Salazar, Rojas, and Campa are all squabbling among themselves, and no two can agree. Although I came in contact with these persons, I could not learn that they had any definite political programme. At first they fought against the local governors, then they fought for a division of the land, and then they opposed re-election to office of Madero, but what they are fighting for now, I don't know, and I doubt if they know themselves. The Orozquistas have no hope of obtaining new followers except among the Yaqui Indians, who are good fighters.
    "The third principal revolution is in the State of Vera Cruz, where Gen. Higinio Agilar has started an uprising. He has several hundred followers. Agilar was a General in the Federal army and resigned owing to a difference of opinion with his superiors. He is independent of all other revolutionary leaders and it doesn't look as if he would meet with much success. But you must remember that, apart from these three, there are many other smaller revolutions.
     "The most dangerous opponents of the Government are in Mexico City itself. They have no leader as yet. If they were brought together under such a leader, they could give a knockout blow to the present Government. The malcontents there are longing for a strong ruler, who, like Porfirio Diaz, can maintain peace and order.
    "Do you know what the foreigners think of intervention? The foreigners in Mexico place all the blame for the present deplorable conditions on the United States, and they believe that the Americans are to blame for the success of the revolutionists. It is felt that they have been helped financially by Americans, so that when Mexico is exhausted conditions will justify intervention by the United States.
    "I have heard from an authoritative source that American financiers have furnished cash to the revolutionists. That Americans are at the root of the present troubles is generally believed by foreigners.
    "The opposition which the United States would meet in case of intervention would be fanatical. The larger places could easily be occupied, but outside the gates of the cities, for several years to come, no American's life would be safe.
    "There is no end to the revolutions in sight. Things are all the time getting worse. More than two billions of foreign capital are invested in Mexico, and it seems as if some foreign country must step in. Such intervention should not be by force, though. It would be a costly experiment. Possibly it might be accomplished by the refusal of foreign countries to make loans to Mexico until order was restored.
    "But if armed intervention should become necessary, then it should be in support of the constitutional government. The foreign troops should fight side by side with the Government soldiers.
    "Mexico offers a splendid field for investment of capital, and I am convinced that as soon as peace is restored foreign capital will flow into Mexico as never before. Three or four hundred millions of dollars are already invested in rubber plantations — a comparatively new industry in Mexico — and, while much money has been lost through mismanagement and dishonesty, I believe that rubber culture in Mexico has a glowing future."