Part 11 (1/2)

”Mr President, I am sorry to inform you that I have just received a wireless that a Ger at ten o'clock, containing large supplies ofto Mr Bryan, the President said: ”Of course, Mr Bryan, you understand what drastic action in this ht ultimately mean in our relations with Mexico?”

Mr Bryan said, by way of reply:

”I thoroughly appreciate this, Mr President, and fully considered it before telephoning you” For a second there was a slight pause and then the President asked Mr Daniels his opinion in regard to the reed with Mr Bryan that immediate action should be taken to prevent the Gero Without a moment's delay the President said to Mr Daniels:

”Daniels, send this e to Admiral Fletcher: '_Take Vera Cruz at once_'”

As I sat at the 'phone on this fateful , away from the hurly-burly world outside, clad only in my pajamas, and listened to this discussion, the tenseness of the whole situation and its grave possibilities of ith all its tragedy gripped athered about a 'phone, pacifists at heart, hout the whole country as being anti- on a course of action thattwo nations to war They were pacifists no longer, but plain, si the duty they owed their country and utterly disregarding their own personal feelings of antagonism to every phase of war

After Mr Bryan and Mr Daniels had left the telephone the President said: ”Tue?” I replied that there was nothing else to do under the circumstances He then said: ”It is too bad, isn't it, but we could not allow that cargo to land The Mexicans intend using those guns upon our own boys It is hard to take action of this kind I have tried to keep out of this Mexican mess, but we are now on the brink of war and there is no alternative”

Discussing this vitalwith the Commander-in-Chief of the Aredy of the whole affair I pictured the flagshi+p of Adserenely at anchor off Vera Cruz, and those aboard the vessel utterly unh the air, an oe which to some of them would be a portent of death When the President concluded his conversation with me his voice was husky It indicated to me that he felt the sole, while the people of America, whose spokes in their beds, unaware and une which was already on its way to Vera Cruz

When I arrived at the White House the nextI found the newspaper correspondents attached to the Executive offices uninfor, but when I notified them that the President had ordered Ad to take Vera Cruz, they junificant news to the country and the world

With Huerta's abdication Venustiano Carranza took hold, but the Mexican troubles were not at an end The constant raiding expeditions of Villa across the Areat irritation and threatened every few days a conflagration While Villa stood with Carranza as a companion in arms to depose Huerta, the _”entente cordiale”_ was at an end as soon as Huerta passed off the stage With these expeditions of Villa and his hbour to the south were again seriously threatened With Villa carrying on his raids and Carranza alwaysthe purpose and attitude of our Govern its offer of helpful cooperation, difficulties of various sorts arose with each day, until popular opinion becaorous action on the part of the American President Every ounce of reserve patience of the President was called into action to keep the situation steady How to do it, with ravate an already acute situation, was the problem that met the President at every turn At this titon

Grotesque uncertain shapes infest the dark And wings of bats are heard in aiht; Discordant voices cry and serpents hiss, No friendly star, no beacon's beckoning ray

Even the members of his own party in the Senate and House were left without an apology or excuse for the see indifference of the President to affairs in Mexico Day after day froorous demands for fir radical be done to establish conditions of peace along our southern borders From many of them came the unqualified demand for intervention, so that the Mexican question should be once and for all settled

[Illustration:

Dear Tumulty,

Can't talk less than half an hour to save his life, and when he is through he has talked on so many different subjects that I never can remember what he said It is literally impossible for me with the present pressure upon me to see him, and I hope you will ask him if he can't submit a memorandum

The President

CLS

Dear Tumulty:

I should like to see Mr ---- but just now it does not seeood deal of sea rooestions up with the Secretary of the Navy

The President

CLS

Dealing with bores]

In the Cabinet, the Secretary of War, the vigorous spokes radical action in the way of intervention, was insisting that we intervene and put an end to the pusillanimous rule of Carranza and ”clean up” Mexico Even I, who had stood with the President during the critical days of the Mexican irew faint hearted inToof some of our soldiers while asleep, was the last straw The continuance of this i the border was unthinkable To force the President's hand, if possible, I expressedletters to him:

THE WHITE HOUSE WAshi+NGTON

March 15, 1916