Send No Troops To Mexico.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 14, 1913:
So Urges Pan-American Official, Who Says It Would Cost Us Heavily.
    "If a single United States soldier is sent over the line into Mexico," said Mark O. Prentiss, Vice President of the Pan-American States Association, yesterday, "it will mean, that the good-will which has been built up between this country and Mexico during the last forty years will die almost instantly. Intervention would automatically put us back, commercially, where we were just after the acquisition of Texas." Mr. Prentiss had just returned from a two years' commercial trip through Mexico, and dropped into the rooms of the Pan-American States Association, Sixth Avenue and Thirty-second Street, to add to the protests that can be heard there any day of the week among the Latin-American visitors to the city.
    According to Mr. Prentiss, there are more persons to the square mile in Mexico who hate Americans than in all other countries put together. Intervention in the present crisis, he said, would raise the cry of American conquest from the Rio Grande to the Canal Zone.
    "The politicians of Mexico have capitalized this fear of an American war of conquest," said Mr. Prentiss. "Not long ago reciprocity with Canada was defeated by a fear of territorial aggrandizement among the Canadians. But that fear in the North was based on an intelligent understanding of the situation. The fear in Mexico is spread by pure emotionalism. If we sent soldiers into Mexico, not only Mexico but every Latin-American country would immediately have a bitter resentment toward us. It would result in a commercial boycott. The word 'annexation' would suffice to bring all the Latin-Americans, through a mere campaign of emotionalism, under one head.
    "And I am not sure that annexation in some form or other would not result from the intervention. That would not be the object, of course, but the presence of soldiers in Chihuahua would result in so much trouble that the United States would be drawn into a conflict. Americans may rest assured that if our troops do cross the border, it will not be a thirty-day excursion. It will be years before they ever withdraw."
    The acquisition of Chihuahua, for instance, Mr. Prentiss pointed out, would be desirable from the point of view of American property owners in that State. He said the lowering of the United States border line would increase the value of real estate within the annexed zone at least 300 per cent.
    "That is why the American owners of land and mines want intervention," continued Mr. Prentiss. "They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. The commercial interests, on the other hand, which depend on Mexican good will for a continuation of prosperity, have everything to lose by intervention. I have no doubt that intervention would be legally and morally justified, but it would be most expensive in view of the loss of all that has been gained in forty years."
    Mr. Prentiss said that he would not be surprised if the Mexicans recalled Porfiorio Diaz within the next few months. President Madero's strength, he said, was already hopelessly shattered.
    "President Madero asked me just after he became President," said Mr. Prentiss. "what kind of a President I thought he would make. I told him frankly that I believed he was not big enough for the place, and that he would last less than two years. Madero is too vacillating. As a matter of fact, when the story of his administration is written, it will be written, not around Madero himself, but around his excellent wife. Little has been said about that woman in the public prints. She is a born diplomat and the constant counsellor of her husband. Had it not been for her, the Madero regime would have fallen long ago, I believe.
    "Felix Diaz, from all I could gather in the various provinces, is not much liked among the Mexicans. The best type of man needed just now was represented in Gen. Blanco, who was killed about ten days ago. He was a soldier through and through and most nearly corresponded with the stern Gen. Diaz himself.
    "It must be remembered that there are half a dozen petty revolutions in progress in different parts of Mexico. If Felix Diaz can get control of several of these fighting factions, there seems little doubt that he will overthrow Madero. I read this morning that Felix Diaz had stated that he did not want the Presidency. They all say that. Madero said that only two years ago."