Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/197

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MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
181

resent the failure of President Taft's administration to protect the rights of American citizens that the National Democratic Convention of 1912 included in its platform the following plank drafted by a delegate from El Paso:

"The constitutional rights of American citizens should protect them on our borders and go with them throughout the world, and every American citizen residing or having property in any foreign country is entitled to and must be given the full protection of the United States Government, both for himself and his property."

Now note how the pledge was fulfilled. In a speech on the floor of the Senate, March 9, 1914, Hon. Albert B. Fall, Senator from New Mexico, related his experience, in seeking protection for Americans in Mexico, at the hands of Secretary of State Bryan, who figured conspicuously in the convention that adopted this pledge, and who was appointed to the highest seat in the cabinet by the president elected upon the platform containing the pledge. Said the Senator:

"I went to the Secretary of State (Mr. Bryan) myself for the purpose of presenting to him a concrete case which occurred in the town of Cananea, where an American citizen was threatened with deportation by the so-called authorities of that