Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/200

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184
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA

themselves and make their permanent homes there.

There was an especially good reason why Americans who went into Mexico should not give up their citizenship. While they were willing to risk their persons and the money they invested they could not be expected to forget that until Diaz established law and order Mexico had witnessed the rise and fall of seventy odd heads of government, in almost every instance as the result of a violent revolution of which the prominent feature was the looting of private property. Doubtless, Americans who cast their business fortunes in Mexico remembered the uncertainty of government during more than fifty years, and for that reason determined to maintain their American citizenship to which they might appeal for protection in the event that the Latin-Mexican element, which had exhibited its lawless greed so often, should attempt to violate their rights. That, when the day of need came for them to claim the shelter of the Stars and Stripes, its protection was denied them, is the saddest, most tragic chapter in all the history of our dealings with Mexico.

The Americans who went into Mexico upon the invitation of the government and played a great part in promoting the country's economic welfare are exactly the same sort of Americans who by the