President To Act Soon.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 3, 1913:
Policy of the Administration Is Shaping Rapidly.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Aug. 2.— That President Wilson is almost ready to announce the policy he intends to follow in the hope of bringing about a restoration of normal conditions in Mexico is the expressed opinion of Senators who have discussed the Mexican situation with him. It was said to-night that the President might be expected to act any day.
    These same Senators profess not to know the plan President Wilson has in mind. In his talks with them, he indicated clearly that he favored a policy of mediation and asked them to sound sentiment in the Senate along that line. He said the same thing to members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who had been following his wishes by talking in favor of the mediation scheme among their legislative associates in the Capitol.
    If there has been a change of policy on the President's part, nothing to show it developed here to-day. In spite of what Senators said, the belief has not changed here that mediation is foremost in the President's plan of action.
    There is every reason, however, to accept the statements that the President is preparing to announce his policy soon. It has been made known authoritatively that whatever he does "will be entirely friendly to Mexico," and this in itself, apart from the knowledge that the President and his advisers are opposed to a drastic course. Is considered the best evidence that intervention has no part in the Administration programme.

Realize Danger of Delay.
    The President and those with whom he has taken counsel realize, however, that the Mexican situation has reached a point where some positive action by this Government may be required to prevent conditions which, if unchecked, will arouse public opinion in this country and among foreign nations to such an extent that the Government will be forced to adopt a radical policy, from which it shrinks. Great Britain's course in laying before the United States the identical expression of the opinions of the British, French, Italian, Spanish, and Belgian diplomatic representatives in Mexico City as to the state of Mexican affairs was too broad a hint that action was expected in Europe to be ignored by this Government. And there is reason to believe that the British note was accompanied by some guarded as to what the United Staes could do. In view of these conditions and the unrest in Congress and elsewhere over the Mexican situation, the expectation is that President Wilson will not delay much longer in putting forward his plan for procuring peace in Mexico. But if mediation is the scheme he intends to propose — and the understanding is that the offer of the mediatory offices of the United States is the basic principle of his plan — the difficulties in the consummation of such a policy have been increased greatly in advance by the declaration of Carranza, Blanco, and Pesquira, the revolutionary leaders, in their telegrams to The New York Times that they will not accept mediation. President Huerta has indicated that he, too, was opposed to any such course, and this has added to the difficulties of President Wilson's forthcoming effort toward conciliation and peace.
    In the meantime the Constitutionalists, as they prefer to be called, are urging that the United States Government let down the bars so that their forces may receive the consideration given to the Federals or Huertistas of obtaining arms and ammunition in this country without restriction. Short of this, the Constitutionalists would like the United States to rescind the privilege possessed by the Federals of obtaining munitions of war from this country.

Think President is Veering.
    President Wilson has given consideration to this latter suggestion, and nothing has come to light to indicate that he has abandoned the idea of adopting it although some Senators and Representatives suspect that he has been veering around to the Constitutionalists' appeal for the right to get war supplies from the United States without restriction.
    That the President had set his face firmly again intervention was emphasized to-day by Secretary Bryan in a statement denying that his request for an appropriation of $100,000 to bring distressed Americans out of Mexico was a step preliminary to an invasion of Mexican territory by United States troops. Mr. Bryan was indignant. Here is what he said:
    Statements such as that which occurred in some of the morning papers, attempting to put a scare-head construction upon my request for an appropriation, are entirely without excuse, and cannot be explained by any theory consistent with interest in the public welfare.
    In furnishing aid to any indigent persons desiring to leave Mexico, this Government is simply doing what it does at any time and anywhere where American lives are endangered by insurrection, and there is no reason why anybody should attempt to misconstrue it.

Significance Seen in Step.
    What Secretary Bryan has said about his request for money to bring distressed Americans from Mexico to the United States agrees with information in the best informed circles here. That it is without any significance, however, is stretching the point. Ambassador Wilson has made it plain that the first step preliminary to the adoption of any radical policy toward Mexico should be the removal of all American men, women, and children from Mexican territory. In the Taft Administration one of the arguments most frequently brought forward against intervention was that it would be followed by the massacre of Americans who were unable to leave the country.
    The weakness of the denials issued by the State Department yesterday and to-day in regard to reports concerning the Administration's alleged policy toward Mexico is that they do not set forth what the department officials believe to be the motive behind these reports.
    In the opinion of the Administration, the sensational statements indicating that the Mexican situation is even more critical than appears on the face of things are the result of a propaganda to force this Government to adopt a policy of intervention, the propaganda being based on the selfishness of persons who have large interests in Mexico and who believe that American intervention would enhance materially the value of their properties. But the denials issued by the State Department have been so carefully worded as not to meet the statements they sought to deny.
    "Pussy-footed" is the way they are characterized.
    Lack of frankness on the part of the State Department has been responsible to a large extent for the uncertainty surrounding the Administration's attitude toward the Mexican situation. In spite of the professions that a policy of ''pitiless publicity" has been adopted, inquiry intended to get at the facts of the diplomatic status of Mexican affairs has been met with flippancy or the response that serious questions were "improper."

Erroneous Reports About Senate.
    There were reports to-day that on Monday the Senate would take up two resolutions pertaining to Mexico under an agreement that they should be adopted on that day. Both of these were Presented by Senator Fall of New Mexico. One of them asserts that Americans in any foreign country are entitled to the protection of the United States Government, and the other provides for repealing the resolution of March 14, 1912, so that the President may be able to permit the Mexican revolutionists to receive munitions of war from the United States.
    No such agreement to act on these two resolutions has been reached. The Committee on Foreign Relations will not meet again until Wednesday, and there is no present intention on its part to map out a Mexican legislative programme at that time. At the Wednesday session the committee will hear Eduardo Hay, ex-Speaker of the Mexican Assembly and an ardent Constitutionalist. Other persons familiar with conditions in Mexico may be asked to appear then or later.
    Until President Wilson indicates the policy he desires to put into operation, the committee will mark time.
    In denying to-day that his request for an appropriation of $100,000 to remove Americans from Mexico had any significance. Secretary Bryan declined to speak of anything that would indicate what the present policy of the Administration toward Mexico was, or what it would be when finally shaped. He also declined to say whether his request for the appropriation had been refused or granted.
    "The Mexican situation," said the Secretary, "remains unchanged. State Department advices to-day indicate no increase in the revolutionary area, and no anti-foreign outbreaks."

Military Situation Unchanged.
    A dispatch from Nelson O'Shaughnessy, Chargé Affaires of the United States in the City of Mexico, stated that no change had taken place in the military situation so far as was known in the capital. From Nueva Leon came a dispatch saying that guerrilla warfare was increasing somewhat there and in the northern and eastern sections of San Luis Potosi. From Monclova word came that the Federals still were in possession, and that the Carranzistas would not attack until they had reinforcements.
    The revolutionists are in the vicinity of Hermanos under Jesus Carranza. Consul General Shanklin in the City of Mexico telegraphed that representations made to the military court in Tampico in behalf of Winters and Sanches, American citizens, had been received in good spirit by the new official and there was an excellent prospect of a favorable settlement in their behalf at an early day.