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218 the effort was kept up during the day, resulting in some processions marching to and fro in the outlying districts; but in the afternoon the students and workmen of the railroads formed and marched to the palace, offering their services to the First Chief in case of war, and were told by him that "We do not wish to provoke war, but if we are obliged to enter upon it we know how to comply with our duty." The manifestants, about a thousand in number, then marched through the principal streets.

In Pachuca there was some excitement and mal-treatment of Americans, but it was not very serious. Generally speaking, little feeling was manifested: much less than when Huerta made his effort to arouse the people against the Americans.

But it is pleasing to note that by the middle of August better counsels began to prevail. The great fundamental mistake made by the Americans was that they insisted on placing Carranza on the same level as they might have placed Villa or Zapata. Although they had thrown so much capital into the country, their lack of knowledge of it was colossal, and they insisted in keeping their troops within the Mexican borders. Carranza appointed a certain number of Mexican commissioners to an international conference, with the understanding that the United States should appoint a like number. The first point of discussion from the Mexican outlook was the removal of United States troops now in Mexico to the other side of the border. The best American thought, to its great credit, concurred in this view. Although America is so greedily capitalistic, her worst enemies cannot but admit that she has always possessed a certain number of men of a much more lofty and humane outlook than any other nation in the world. Her own great democratic principles have been forged by such men, who at moments of supreme importance have cowed the capitalistic crew into shame and impotence, and there is little doubt that on this occasion they came forward to wield the same beneficent influence that they and their kind have so often wielded