Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/254

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MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA

effect upon the masses of the people, who appeal most to our sympathy, of what we have done, emphasize the wisdom of the saying that "sympathy without understanding is never effective and often dangerous."

Certainly the results of our efforts to help the greatest sufferers in Mexico have not been such that we can point to them with pride satisfaction. We have helped to destroy hundreds of American lives and hundreds of millions of American property. We have also assisted in turning the government of Mexico over to a party which is destroying the lives of thousands of its own people and confiscating, and spending in vicious and immoral living, the property of other thousands.

Would it not be better now for us to go back to the idea of doing our simple duty to our own and leaving the Mexicans to their own devices if we feel that we are not warranted in rescuing the suffering masses of them from the criminals who are imposing upon them so many of the miseries of "self-government" as it exists in Mexico?