Page:Hands off Mexico.djvu/68

 is to compel aliens to seek the same fountains of justice as citizens; that is, the courts, which are open in Mexico the same as in the United States. A French wine manufacturer of California who feels that his property has been confiscated by the prohibition laws may seek justice in American courts, as any American may do. We do not permit him to continue making wine, while forcing American wine manufacturers out of business. Nor do we permit him to call the French Navy to San Francisco harbor, there to train its guns on that port, while the French Foreign Office threatens war on behalf of French wine "rights" in the United States.

All questions at issue between the foreign oil corporations and the Mexican Government are legal questions which fall into the same general category. The author has read the arguments on both sides, and the Mexican Government seems clearly to have the better case. But it is not a question for the author to decide, or for the oil companies to decide, or for the American State Department to decide. Although we are all entitled to our opinions, we are not entitled to appeal to external force to compel acceptance of them by Mexico. It is a question for the Mexican courts to decide. Mexican judges are as competent and honest as American judges. Th oil companies are wealthy enough to hire the best Mexican legal talent. If they cannot get what they believe to be their rights from Mexican courts, they, nevertheless, have no alternative but to bow to the decision of Mexican courts. If they proceed to raise and support armies to defy Mexican authority, they become liable to deportation for taking part in political affairs, or to prosecution as outlaws and rebels.

If Mexican oil men, or American oil men, attempted to do in Texas, Oklahoma, or California, what American oil men are doing in Mexico, there would be a few legal hangings of oil men in the United States.

Why, then, does not the Mexican Government proceed more vigorously than it has yet done against the American supporters of Pelaez?

The only answer known to the author is that they are being protected in their unlawful and rebellious conduct by their home governments.

In the Senate Hearing on Mexican Affairs, September 11, 1919, we find this colloquy: