Page:Hands off Mexico.djvu/20

 It is, however, a question whether Mexican lives are safer in Texas than American lives are in Mexico. Certainly there are other countries in which Americans are habitually safer than foreigners are in the United States. It is an immoral rule that does not work both ways. As we are bound to maintain our own sovereignty, so are we bound, by every consideration of international law and ethics, scrupulously to respect the sovereignty of our neighbors.

We have no right whatever to go in and kill a lot of Mexicans because some Americans have unfortunately been killed. We possess no super-authority which makes us the judge as to whether the Mexican Government is using its best efforts to protect Americans. If an American citizen is determined to remain in dangerous places, he must seek other means of protection than an army of his countrymen. He has rights, but no right to call an invading army to his assistance. No right of any American in Mexico can weigh against the right of the Mexican people to sovereignty.

Nor can it weigh against the right of the American people to be kept out of war. For the rights of Mexicans in this matter happen to accord both with the rights and INTERESTS of the American people. To attempt to live by the principle that our government is bound to protect the life of every American in every part of the world would be to assert a world sovereignty for ourselves, and involve our country in constant and disastrous war. The most aggressive government on earth does not attempt to live consistently up to this principle. Its actual application is urged only on occasions when a pretext is needed for aggression. The obligation, both of interest and of honor, is overwhelmingly against sending an army to "protect American lives" in Mexico.

 

5.

"BENEVOLENT PACIFICATION"

American citizens have had a long time in which to save their lives by getting out of dangerous parts of Mexico. Why do they remain there? Only one answer has ever been heard to this question: They remain there for business reasons. In this answer is acknowledged the real issue. 