The Days of a Man 



1916 



Watchful 

 waiting 



Honorable 



the United States : first, the appointment of Henry 

 P. Fletcher as minister to Mexico; second, the with- 

 drawal of Pershing's forces, a move accomplished 

 without special incident. Meanwhile, the scare having 

 subsided, the swarm of agitators departed from El 

 Paso, leaving local factions to wrangle like coyotes 

 over a bone. 



Thus Wilson's policy of "watchful waiting" had 

 justified itself in essentials, though defective in some 

 details, and will, as he foresaw, earn the favorable 

 verdict of history. Whether or not our unofficial 

 efforts contributed to the final result I do not know; 

 I simply tell the story for what it is worth. 



It should by no means be assumed that all the 

 capitalist corporations operating in Mexico were at 

 any time in favor of intervention. Many of the most 

 influential concessionaires Daniel M. Burns, John 

 E. Milholland, George Foster Peabody, and William 

 Kent, for example were wholly opposed to a policy 

 of violence. Milholland is a practical idealist, a busi- 

 ness man of large experience, extended acquaintance 

 in America and Europe, and a vigorous interest in 

 many reforms. Politically an ardent Republican 

 formerly on the staff of the New York Tribune he 

 is also a strong suffragist and a thoroughgoing demo- 

 crat. On July 7, while the Unofficial Commission was 

 still in session at Washington, he wrote me as follows : 



No province of the old Roman Empire was ever looted by 

 corrupt proconsuls more shamelessly than Mexico has been by 

 the grabbers of all nations, among whom those of the United 

 States stand facile princeps. I am not sure that the rich mines 

 in which I am interested are not part of an ancient steal under 

 the flimsy disguise of a Diaz concession. Whether they are or 



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