Page:Hands off Mexico.djvu/65

 excusing our stay on the ground that Carranza had failed to furnish sufficient guarantees of the protection of the border. At the same time we continued to withhold from Carranza the only means by which such guarantees could be given—we continued to prevent Carranza from procuring arms!

Why have we had an arms embargo against Mexico almost continuously throughout the Administration of President Wilson?

The answer has a thousand times been spread abroad in the interventionist press: We would only he letting the Mexicans get guns with which to fight us later."

In other words, the embargo is a measure in anticipation of war. Not defensive war, for that is out of the question, but aggressive war.

In continuing the embargo the Administration virtually confesses that it contemplates further armed invasions of Mexico.

The arms embargo is an interventionist maneuver purely, but it is only one of many factors which the Administration employs—whether deliberately for that purpose or not—to maintain and aggravate the very conditions which we are asked to end by intervention.

Border raids would not be financed in the hope of provoking intervention unless we were threatening intervention because of border raids.

Every time we have invaded Mexico it has been a source of extreme political embarrassment to Carranza, which his enemies were quick to take advantage of. One evidence of the popularity of the Carranza Government is that it was able to continue in power throughout the eleven months of the "punitive expedition," in spite of the patriotic passions aroused by the presence of an alien army on Mexican soil.

Every time Carranza has postponed a revolutionary reform, in face of American threats, it has been a source of political embarrassment to him. The Mexican people expect their government to realize the high promises of the revolution.

Every time Carranza has revised his taxation program, or remitted a tax, in face of American threats, it has been a source of internal disorder. The educational institutions must receive their pay, as well as the public offices and the army, or the government will fall. The railroads must be kept up. Because of his unwillingness to accept conditions touching Mexican