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with a deliberate attempt to start a war with Mexico by circulating false news through this country. He said, "The object of this traffic in falsehood is obvious. It is to create intolerable friction between the government of the United States and the de facto government of Mexico for the purpose of bringing about intervention in the interests of certain American owners of Mexican properties."
By way of further emphasis, the President added, "The people of the United States should know the sinister and unscrupulous influences that are afoot, and should be on their guard against crediting any story coming from the border, and those who disseminate the news should make it a matter of patriotism and of conscience to test the source and authenticity of every report they receive from that quarter."
Here is a deliberate statement made by the highest official in the United States, that certain of the great vested interests are trying to stir up a war between the United States and Mexico, in order to safeguard their properties and increase their profits.
The New York Times comments on the President's statement in a way that indicates that the President would have been justified in issuing his warning at any time within the past six years.
"It is well known," says the Times on Sunday, March 26, 1916, "that false reports about the hostility of Mexicans to the American troops of the punitive expedition have been freely circulated. Southern Texas has contained many agencies for the spreading of reports calculated to involve the United States in difficulties with Mexico since the very beginning of the Madero revolution in 1910, and the methods of the interventionists have been perfectly well known to our government and the American newspapers."
If the Times is correct, and as one of the leading papers of the country it is in a position to speak with authority, there have been six years of deliberate effort to start a war between two peaceful countries, for the
