Inaction Annoys Wall St.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 17, 1913:
Government Criticised for Failing to Protect Americans.
    Officials of railroad and industrial companies having large interests in Mexico were almost a unit yesterday in criticising the Wilson Administration for its failure to take a more determined stand for the protection of the lives and property of citizens of the United States. It was said in the financial district that the situation in that country had reached such a stage that the operations of mines, smelting plants, and oil fields practically had been suspended. In some cases the New York offices had not been able to get word from their resident employes to learn whether their property had been destroyed. The National Railways, a Government institution with a large amount of European and American capital invested in it, has not kept its New York officials informed of recent developments in connection with the retirement of President Brown and the election of his successor. The corporation is one of the chief sufferers by the various revolutions. The company is operating slightly less than 48 per cent. of its mileage, and its gross revenues for the first week in July were only $600,000, as compared with $900,000 for the corresponding week of last year, which in turn had shown a loss of $300,000 from the year before.
    Julius Kruttschnitt, Chairman of the Southern Pacific, asked about his company's operations below the Rio Grande, said:
    "We still are being permitted to use the tracks into Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, 150 miles from the border, and we have a line into Cananea, forty-five miles. Altogether, we have left in workable order about 200 or perhaps 250 miles out of a total or 1,000. Over that trackage we can run an occasional train. There is other mileage which may or may not be in the hands of rebels, but the system is cut in two and we are not getting any use of the greater part. The shops and terminals cannot be reached, and so are of no use to us.
    "We might run trains to Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, but there are gunboats in the harbor, and as they have taken to firing at every locomotive they see, we decided it was not a healthy section for railroading."
    The Southern Pacific has sent copies of dispatches telling of damage to its property to the State Department, and in return has received, as a Director put it, courteous acknowledgment of the complaints, but nothing more.