Barbarous Mexico/Preface
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
Since the publication of the first edition of this book less than four months ago both the prophecies which it embodies have been fulfilled. On page 10 I say that Mexico "is on the verge of a revolution in favor of democracy;" and on page 267, that "The United States will intervene with an army, if necessary, to maintain Diaz or a successor who would continue the special partnership with American capital,"
As this is written, nearly 30,000 American soldiers are patrolling the Mexican border and American warships are cruising in the neighborhood of Mexican ports. Though not a soldier may cross the line, though not a vessel may fire a shot, this is effective intervention all the same. The confessed purpose is to crush the revolution by cutting off its source of supplies and by preventing patriotic Mexicans residing in the United States from going home to fight for the freedom of their country.
The action of President Taft in mobilizing the troops was taken without regard for the wishes of the American people and without due explanation to them. The action of the troops in seizing revolutionist supplies and arresting revolutionist recruits is not only against every tradition of political liberty upon which this nation is supposed to be based, but it is unlawful and criminal and punishable under the laws of the States by fine and imprisonment. It is not a crime against any federal or state law to ship food, or even arms and ammunition, into Mexico with the open intention of selling them to the revolutionists. It is not a crime against any federal or state law to go from the United States into Mexico with the open intention of joining the revolution there. Without a formal proclamation of martial law the military authorities have no right to exceed the civil laws and when they do so they are liable to fine and imprisonment for unlawful detention.
Martial law has not been proclaimed on the border. Every day the military authorities there are violating the laws. But the civil authorities are cowed, the people are cowed, and the victims, Mexican or American, seem to have no redress. By fiat of the executive law and civil authority have been subverted and, as far as the Mexican situation is concerned, the United States has been turned into a military dictatorship as sinister and irresponsible as that of Diaz himself.
And why has this thing been done? To maintain a chattel slavery more cruel than ever existed in our Southern states. To uphold a political tyranny a hundred times more unjust than the one against which our men of Seventy-Six revolted. If the policy of the Taft administration be permitted to continue these purposes will be attained. Already the revolution has received such a set-back that, though it win in the end, many good and brave men must die who otherwise might have lived. The purpose of this book was to inform the American people as to the facts about Mexico in order that they might be prepared to prevent American intervention against a revolution the justice of which there can be no question.
So far "Barbarous Mexico" has failed in this purpose. Will it fail in the end? Are the American people as enslaved in spirit as the Mexicans are in body? In Mexico the only protest possible is a protest of arms. In the United States there is still a degree of freedom of press and speech. Though by tricks and deceits innumerable the rulers of America succeed in evading the will of the majority, the majority yet may protest, and if the protest be long enough and loud enough, it is still capable of making those rulers tremble. Protest against the Crime of Intervention. And should it become necessary, in order to make the rulers heed, to raise that protest to a threat of revolution here, so be it; the cause will be worth while.
Los Angeles, Calif., April 8, 1911.