Page:Hands off Mexico.djvu/52

 For answer, every logical person will look in just one direction—at what happened between July and November, 1914.

''In that four months the defection of Villa was accomplished. Wilson withdrew from Vera Cruz only after the announcement had been blazoned in Washington that the early triumph of Villa was assured.''

Americans have short memories. How many have forgotten that Pancho Villa, the most ignorant, vain, unprincipled, and perverted of all Mexican leaders, a bandit who was able to become the head of a splendid army only because in the beginning he chose to fight on the side of the genuine revolutionists, was known for many months, in Washington, along the border, in Mexico, and in New York, as the special favorite and protege of Wilson?

The grooming of Villa had gone on for some time. Since Nogales Wilson had been cold to Carranza. Proposals that had been rejected by Carranza were now made to Villa—and were entertained. Rich Americans complained that they could not "do business" with Carranza. But Villa shouted aloud his love for Americans, and his determination to give satisfactory protection to their property interests.

While our forces lingered in Vera Cruz, Villa suddenly became the hero of the Mexican Revolution—on the American side of the line. America's most frankly pro-intervention newspaper publisher established a news bureau at El Paso, employing three writers, who were engaged almost exclusively in sending out stories delightfully portraying Villa's exploits. The same publisher kept a special correspondent with Villa for more than a year, and no secret was made of the fact that this correspondent also acted as the ex-bandit's personal press agent. The interventionists of today came out for Pancho Villa as "the strong man" who would "set up a stable government" and meet "Mexico's international obligations." The powerful newspapers which touted Villa misrepresented and disparaged Carranza.

The evidence is overwhelming that, while Wilson held Vera Cruz, Villa made his peace with Wilson, with the great foreign interests, as well as with at least a fraction of the Mexican reactionary party known as the "Cientificos," and that his rebellion against Carranza was fomented during that period.

One George C. Carothers, a special agent of Wilson, became