The Mediator
Omaha, Nebraska, August 22, 1919
The time has just about arrived for Uncle Sam to take the bull by the horns in Mexico and settle that vexatious question once and for all. The continued depredations by itinerant Mexican desperadoes on American people has become so exasperating that it cannot be overlooked for a great length of time.
The exploitation of Mexico by Americans in recent years has had a bad effect in some instances, but as a general proposition it has been a good thing for the country. Mexico covers a very wide area and has not had a responsible head for a decade. The natural result has been that the machinery of government has decayed and become almost useless as power to police the various states.
What is required in Mexico is a power similar to the power that civilized the Hawaiian and Philippine groups and brought to them stable government. Sooner or later that power will have to be furnished by some substantial nation that can enforce its dictates for good and stable government in Mexico.
Our people have taken much from Mexico and tried to get along with the people of that country. Mexico has not progressed like other new countries, either in education or the art of government. On the other hand, it has decayed. Far-seeing men, with an eye to developing the natural resources of that country, have invested great sums of money. It is too late to stop the advance in that development.
When the Mexican is educated to decent living, to the value of thrift and to the necessity for advancing instead of declining, then and not until then will that country progress. It has just about come to the point where Uncle Sam will be forced to take a hand in bringing about a stable government, even if it takes an army to do it.
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