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236 the Mexican people from the long agony inflicted upon them by a minority of their countrymen, surely we have the right to intervene to protect our own citizens against the same criminal minority.

That right we have abrogated for nearly eight years, but there is yet time to accomplish a great deal that justice, to speak nothing of humanitarianism, would appear to call for if we would cease to expect at the hands of the dominant class of Mexico the justice for the masses which we humanely desire, and insist upon the sort of government which the rights of our citizens demand.

In doing this we will be rendering a sort of service to the unfortunate masses of Mexico. If, when the spirit of loot and robbery began to assert itself as a part of revolutionary conditions nearly eight years ago, we had said to the Mexican leaders: "You can kill and rob each other to your hearts' content; for we have no right to dictate what your actions shall be so long as they concern only yourselves, but if you invade the personal or property rights of any American citizen, we will use the whole power of our great nation to see that the offender is punished," we would not only have been rendering a proper service to our own citizens but a very humanitarian service to hundreds of thousands of Mexican workmen who were engaged in serving American enterprises in their country.