Life — July 20, 1916 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JULY 20, 1916 ‘* While there is Life there's Hope" Published by LIFE PUBLISHI J. A. Mircurte, Pres't COMPANY A, Minter, Sec'y and Treas. 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York English Offices, Rolls House, Bre: EXICAN matters and resulting at- titudes change so fast that there is hardly time for the opposition news- papers te denounce what Mr. Wilson intends to do, before the dice roll out of the box again and he does some- thing entirely different. One Mexican story is good only until another is told, and if they are average stories neither of them is so. In almost any issue of any newspaper, and especially of the more copious Sunday —~ papers, one may read about Mexico quite to ME suit the taste, as that i Carranza is tottering; that he has the whole country in won- derful order, except two provinces; that the population is star 3 that the population is unusually cheerful; that Villa is dead, wounded, resting in a sanitarium, walking with a stick, and in a fine blaze of renewed health at the head of a large force and about to raid the frontier. This vacillating quality in the news is a political em- barrassment just now, because it makes it hard to frame a complaint that will last until the ink is dry. Nevertheless, at this writing (July loth) Mexican matters do look better. The mobilization of the United States militiay and its fairly prompt appear- ance on the Mexican border so strengthened Dr. Carranza’s hold on government that he was able to be polite and talk like a reasonable being. It is, of course, a great help to the de facto Executive of a country just emerging from revolution to start a procession of trains full of fairly husky soldier-men towards his Lorder. ey cat Bidgs., London, E. C. With every train-load disembarked the need to rally round the existing gov- ernment becomes more urgent. To be between the devil and the open is a simple matter, because if the devil threatens you can run for it. But to be between the devil and the deep sea is a situation where one has to walk a chalk line. With a fairly competent and growing American army on the horder, Carranza has the disorderly elements in Mexico between the devil and the deep sea. So by threatening his government Mr. Wilson seems to have strengthened it. But it could not have been done by words. To do Mexico any real good took a real, valid war-scare, lifted in at great expense and much inconven- ience to individual American citizens. That all our pacifists, and many re- spected leading citizens of no pacifisti- cal notoriety, began to protest that we really ought not to get into war with Mexico, and that Pershing should he called back, was simply another effect of the same action. Even for its effect on Mexico our militia mobilization promises to be worth what it cost, while its value to the country quite outside of that is enormous. UCH is in the papers about the militia. mobilization, much about Mexico, a great deal about infantile paralysis, and sharks on the New Jer- sey shore, and an absorbing daily con- tribution about the progress of the great war, but not much yet of any moment about our presidential cam- paign. When it gets going, and while it lasts, it will be lively, and should be interesting, but never a campaign was up against a stronger competition of news. When it does get going Mr. Wilson is to stand trial for mal-administration, and the Democrats are to be arraigned as incompetent to run the country. An interesting preliminary to this trial of Mr. Wilson before the people’s court is a diagnosis of his mind, by Dr. Rockwell of Worcester, published in the Sun of July 6th, Dr. Rockwell, who is a scientist of reputation, goes into the matter of Mr. Wilson’s mental equipment to the ex- tent of about two newspaper columns. He admits that Mr. Wilson’s mind is “well furnished and admirably trained.” The fault he finds with it is that it is tardy, and “failing in the first instance to comprehend the right point of view ina given subject, cannot be speeded up through the various evolutional steps necessary to arrive at the correct solution until after that solution has been accepted by many of his countrymen.” Dr. Rockwell says Mr. Wilson has not “ flopped,” as has so often been charged, “but has with considerable labor and discomfort gone through certain evolutional, mental processes, until he sees things as many others with greater mental alertness already have seen them.” As Dr. Rock- well secs the case, it is as though an excellent automobile with a tank full of good gasoline had a halting car- bureter. Mr. Wilson, as he seems to sce him, is a fairly good one to go, but a bad one to start. STIMATES of men by practising psychologists do not seem to help very much in politics, but they are in- teresting. There is an amazing dis- parity of opinion about our President. He has dealt with very great affairs, and has many admirers who consider that he is a very great man. A lot of other people, some of whom were his political supporters, are quite out of conceit with him and loath to admit that he has done anything well. comicbooks.com