John Lind to William Jennings Bryan

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Recd. Dec. 5, 10:20 pm


Secretary of State,Washington, DC
December five, two pm

The following report will be sent in sections as soon as enciphered:

One. The revolutionists of the north have made their crops and are becoming more active. In Villa they have an intrepid and resourceful general. He is the highest type of physical, moral and mental efficiency that the conditions and the environment could be reasonably expected to produce. He started as a teamster and soon became majordomo of the train. An aristocrat ruined his sister; he killed him. Condemned to death he fled to the mountains and became a bandit. As such he was feared and respected. When opportunity arose he became a rebel and rebel he has continued, more consistent in his attitude than most of them. A very intelligent American who has known him intimately for years tells me that he is true and loyal to his friends, that he has pride in the sense of our use of the term, and that he has absorbed a very considerable amount of “culture” in the last three years. He is proud of his successes and appears to produce and maintain order and security in the captured towns to a wonderful degree. He is a leader of men because he leads and is just and fearless. Like all Mexicans he is avaricious. They are all avaricious for money to spend. They live in the senses. He is cruel. Life and fate have taught him nothing else. He is pictured in the Mexican press as a demon principally because he executed some officers and some spies who had been employed by Huerta to assassinate him. His acts in this regard should be judged by Mexican standards. In so far as he allowed any captives to escape death, to that extent he is more humane than the commanders of the Federal forces. They murder all captives. After six months of continuous warfare there is not one constitutionalist commander in a federal prison. Explanation is those captured have been shot, every one. Likewise the privates, except that in a few instances their lives have been spared on condition that they enter the federal service. The federals shot over thirty rebels in their cots in the hospital at Gomez Palacio in the presence of an American doctor. Blood covered the floor an inch deep. You wonder why these things have not been reported. I have not had time to report all. Isolated instances would only minimize the viciousness of the whole. The Federals, where they have captured towns in which there were no scientificos to be injured, have razed and destroyed every home and every structure. They have shot or hanged all the men and sent the women and children into captivity. Federals and rebels alike have exacted tribute from banks and business men in the towns captured, the rebels more generally, but they have as a rule exempted foreigners. The Federals have both. Not one of the representatives of the American press has dared to report the facts. The censure has been complete and relentless. I devote this much space to Villa because I believe him a true, virulent type of the most promising element of the Mexican population. I believe truly that the worst that can be said of him isthat he is only a little better than the best of the Federal generals. The other group of facts I present so that you may be prepared to accept the uncensored reports of revolutionists atrocities that will come to you with the stoicism I hope that I have acquired, also to impress upon you that the ledger is double paged. For every charge against the rebels there is credit and plus on the federal side. What I fear is that the rebels will insist on payment in full. I confess that I wish to see them pay part. The peculiar situation here demands that they should and that the last installment be paid in Mexico City but you must be prepared to supervise the final liquidation.

Two. From now on I look for constant progressof the revolutionist campaign the band wagon factor which I referred to in earlier communications had become operative. On their marches the rebels gain in numbers every kilometer. The Federals dare not march for fear of losing all their men; they avoid marches but with the interrupted railroad communications they make little progress in movement and their forces are constantly shrinking. The situation of the country is becoming deplorable. It is a land naturally so rich and the wants of people so few that it is difficult to exhaust Mexico. Nevertheless many sections are near the point of exhaustion. Predatory bands made up of deserted Federals and bandits are making their appearance in many localities. I believe the excesses reported by Commander Twining yesterday were committed by such bands. Every passing week increases this evil. If present conditions are permitted to continue, with the natural acceleration incident to the situation, it will not be long before the country is completely destroyed that starvation will add its contribution to the general demoralization. Hence it is my judgment that the time has now come when it is incumbent upon the United States to assist the rebels by such means as its general policy permits to bring the situation to as early a termination as possible. These considerations prompted me to make the suggestions transmitted in regard to the Tampico situation. I still believe that it would be unwise at this stage to take any affirmative action either to oust Huerta or to secure pacification by such means. But other means that are available to hasten matters should, in my judgment, be utilized without hesitancy. It is idle to expect that Huerta will retire or that he will cooperate in any manner to secure an adjustment by peaceful means. It is more likely that his last card will be some act equivalent to a declaration of war against the United States. He has prequently expressed such intention as a last resort. At present he is still maneuvering for time to complete the work of his congress. He expects large profit to himself from the concessions that are pending. Present indications are that Lord Cowdray interests have abandoned their scheme. The publicity it has received has made them cautious. They cannot afford to take any action now that may tend to jeopardize the property and concessions already in hand in spite of what Lord Cowdray has said and the representations he has made to you. I reassert all that I have heretofore reported as being true at the time reported. I was not mistaken in regard to Lord Cowdray’s plans nor in regard to the difference in the attitude of England as set forth in Washington and as applied in Mexico. The principal marked change in the English attitude here but it is a reluctant one and so long as Carden remains there will be no cooperation in the aim or purposes of the United States. We will have to go it alone; we will have to carry the whole burden; and I feel that we should also insist upon the undivided prestige that will result from it. If England is permitted any share in the work she will claim the credit for all and the hostile Mexicans will concede it.

Three. Assuming the country pacified in the sense that the revolutionists are victors, and that condition ought to be attained in January if their work is not hindered but helped by the United States, then what? It is not necessary to (#) about the elimination of Huerta under those circumstances. When the rebels are at the gates of Mexico City he will just naturally slough off. It will also be a mere matter of detail to arrange for the squeezing off. It will also be a mere matter of detail to arrange for the transfer of the formal succession to the new man who will assume the Provisional Presidency. Who is the man for this position? To this question I have given much thought lately and I have a mind satisfied that expediency will have to control the selection in a measure unless we want war with the revolutionists on that issue and that, it seems to me, we cannot afford. The revolutionists will want Carranza. They will want not voluntarily, in my judgment, submit to any other selection. I am not sure that it would be wholly reasonable to ask them to consent to any man who has not had the moral courage to come out for them in this crisis and it would be absurd to ask them to accept an opponent. The elections in Mexico and the administration in power are so inseparable, both in the manner in which they are conducted and in the bearing on the result, that the two cannot be considered independently. The Constitutionalists appreciate this fact keenly and they will therefore, under no circumstances, consent to the administration passing into unfriendly hands. Such being the compelling necessity of the situation, it seems to me the part of prudence to shape our policy in that regard so as to make a virtue of that necessity. And here I crave your pardon for earnestly urging upon you the necessity for timely and efficaient negotiations with the revolutionists on this question before it is too late to seek and amicable and definite understanding. I have already reported briefly on Carranza. This forenoon I had a two hours’ conversation with a Mr. Fyfe, correspondent of the LONDON TIMES, who has recently returned from the north and is now on the way to Washington. He impressed me as a keen observer and an excellent judge of men. His prejudice against the Constitutionalists generally is less marked than in the case of most Englishmen. He confirmed my impressions of Carranza in every detail: that he is honest; that he has convictions; that he is a man of his word; ambitious and set in his views almost to the point of pigheadedness. He also gives him credit for much broader reading and study than I had been led to think him possessed of. If this characterization is fairly accurate, and I believe it to be, then Carranza in my judgment possesses more merit and fewer objections than the name of any other Mexican in sight whose name is in any degree available; but every characteriizationc mentioned make it doubly important that you have a definite understanding with him and that such understanding be arrived at early. I have come to the conclusion that it is Carranza or his nominee, or military intervention and occupation by the United States.

Four. The political dangers that confront the incoming administration are the same that have wrecked past ones. I group them.

(A) The enormous wealth at the disposal of Congress and the Federal Government. For instance: The oil resources only partially developed have indirectly caused or materially contributed to the last two revolutions. I do not believe that any oil interest has directly financed revolutions but I have the record evidence of the corruption fund distributed by Lord Cowdray to the officials in power at the time his oil concessions were obtained and the transfer made to the Aguilar Oil Company. Privately informed three hundred thousand dollars in preferred eight per cent stock was turned over to Government officials. Governor Escaudon received two hundred thousand dollars; Colonel Porfirio Diaz Jr., two hundred thousand dollars; the Attorney General, Macedo Enrique Creel, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Congressman Cervantes, Mayor of Fagaoga of Mexico City, each received one hundred thousand dollars etc. That the other oil interests while they have received no concessions have nevertheless bribed freely as occasion required goes without saying. This xx state of affairs was public property. There are no secrets in Mexico. Such a harvest of gold by these in office inevitably led the outs to start revolutions. There was no other way of getting in. History will repeat as long as conditions remain the same.

(B) Public office is looked upon and intended to be an opportunity for graft. It is justified and was the system of farming out the revenues on the score that it induces efficiency in administration and loyalty to the appointing power. This evil was inherited from Spain. Porfirio Diaz required his governors to pay over twenty per cent of the taxes collected to the Federal Government the balance they were supposed to expend in the states as they saw fit. As a result outlying the cities there are neither schools nor roads. All salaries are inadequate.

Five. Another important matter is the outstanding option held by the European syndicate for completing the pending loan. The syndicate has until January first to exercise its option to take or refuse the balance of the loan. I believe it very important that the loan be lapsed. Mexico will of necessity require financing with the advent of peace and a new administration on a larger scale and I hope that it may be accomplished under conditions attached to the loan that will insure the proper expenditure of the money for public purposes.

Mexico is phenomenally rich, her power of recuperation great. With a loan to cover her immediate wants and two years of decent government prosperity would be restored.In my judgment the situation here is an nearing a climax that may demand positive action at the hands of the United States at an early date. I hope that we may be able to escape armed intervention but we must not harbor the delusion that merely getting a new President will set things right. “The Colossus of the North” as the Mexicans’ term must hereafter be the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to guide and compel decent administration and a government that will at least in a measure approach the constitutional form. From this necessity there is in my judgment no escape unless revolution and anarchy are to continue the order of the day in Mexico.I do not assume to offer these views by way of advice I simply state them as my convictions after careful study and reflection.