The Days of a Man 



1916 



Appeal for 

 a breathing 

 space 



to The Independent an article giving our impressions 

 and the reasons for helping rather than righting 

 Mexico. 



The first meeting of the full "Unofficial Commis- 

 sion," of which Storey became chairman, took place 

 at the New Willard Hotel on Wednesday, July 5. 1 

 But as soon as Rojas reached Washington that is, 

 on July 4 identical telegrams in Spanish, prepared 

 by him and signed by himself and me, were sent to 

 Wilson and Carranza. 2 These urged a ten days' 

 armistice, diplomatic as well as military, until dis- 

 puted matters could be cleared up. Indeed, the 

 diplomatic factors 3 seemed the more dangerous, for 

 Pershing conducted his perilous and no doubt unwel- 

 come task with rare discretion. A breathing space, 

 we thought, might permit the governments to come 

 to agreement on the appointment of a Joint High 

 Commission, a time-honored method of averting war 

 first practiced by John Adams. Such a group could 

 patiently and in cold blood consider all questions in 



*At a subsequent gathering of Harvard Alumni in Boston, Mr. Storey 

 spoke as follows: 



"Now if we are civilized, let us sit down over a council table and discuss 

 this question before we go into war. What can we gain by war, even if we had 

 the whole of Mexico? We should be undertaking to impose our government on 

 an unwilling people with a result which we saw the other day in the streets of 

 Dublin. 



"The League to Enforce Peace might as well dissolve tomorrow if they can- 

 not control the action of their own country. If we cannot make the United 

 States arbitrate this miserable difference, what hope is there that we could ever 

 influence the nations of Europe? This is our opportunity. If we have sense and 

 character enough, this war can be stopped. If we choose to sit by we shall get 

 into a situation which nobody can foresee and out of which no good can come. 

 In the words of Grant, 'Let us have peace!' " 



2 This message having some historic value, it will be found in Appendix H 

 of this volume (page 812). 



8 According to a Chinese proverb, "if two women talk long enough there will 

 be hair-pulling." The same statement, as a Chinese president once observed, 

 applies to Foreign Offices, which he said should be closed in times of crisis. 



C6 9 8 3 



