VIEWS OF THE PRESS ON MEXICO AND NICARAGUA
Views of the Press on Mexico and Nicaragua TIIE NEW REPUBLIC, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1927 AFTER ALL, public opinion in the Unitec States does count for something. It has succeeded single-handed...
...Coolidge begin to appear not altogether 3aerosanct and beyond criticism on the part of prominent newspapers...
...that is just what they are not...
...1 * THE WASHINGTON POST, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1927 SENATOR LA FOLLETTE charged that Secretary Kellogg had omitted to include in the memorandum the reply which Calles made to Soviet Minister Tchicherin when the latter publicly expressed gratification at having established a base in Mexico for future operations at the time of the Mexican government's recognition of the soviet union...
...Today Washington is full of soft words about arbitration, mediation and conciliation...
...Today it is talking peace...
...It is high time for Americans, who have been complacent in their ignorance, to ask themselves: What has been our policy in the past...
...It is impossible to get anywhere by treating the Nicaragua and Mexican episodes as unique...
...The Secretary of State knows enough to realize that when he has brought the avalanche down it is time to retire, at least, temporary, into his cave...
...Two weeks ago Diaz was to be kept in power, by force of our arms...
...The daily press for the most part has acted with unusual intelligence and independence in analyzing Secretary Kellogg's actions, puncturing his arguments and riddling his ridiculously inadequate "evidence...
...Kellogg left Wednesday with the Foreign Relations Committee...
...La Follette concluded by asking that the Senate take some action "to rectify the wrong done to a friendly government by the Secretary of State...
...The New York Times spoke with a vigor which was doubly effective because ?o unusual in its rather placid editorial columns, senator Borah, after a fortnight of inexplicable ;ilence, at last spoke out effectively on the \ricaraguan issue, and Sentaors Wheeler and La Follette and others performed a useful public service by their utterances...
...Numerous organizations devoted to peace mobilized their memberships quickly and effectively...
...President William Green of the American Federation of Labor raised his voice against the notion that Mexican labor is Bolshevist...
...The effort to insure our continued dominance in Nicaragua will be resumed just as soon as it seems safe to do so...
...Senator La Follette said there had been two steps in the State Department's propaganda, the first being the story attributed to Assistant Secretary Olds about "Bolshevist hegemony," in Central America, and the second the paper Mr...
...it is also important that those who disapprove of our recent ventures should recognize the fact that they were quite in accord with the major drift of our whole policy toward Latin America for many years, and particularly for the past two decades...
...Even the doings of Mr...
...Senator La Follette, Republican, Wisconsin, who was making the first speech since his recent illness, betrayed no Lack of vigor...
...MAKING LIGHT of the "red plot" in connection with Mexican and Nicaraguan matters, Senator La Follette of Wisconsin, in a speech in the Senate this afternoon, assailed the action of Secretary of State Kellogg in putting out the document "Bolshevik Aims and Policies in Mexico and Latin America...
...Sacasa was to be isolated by cordon sanitaire...
...It is a healthy sign...
...He did not go into a discussion of the Nicaraguan question, but did declare the "action of our government is unjustifiable and unconscionable...
...One week Mexico's cloven hoof is seen in Nicaraguan affairs, and we propose to stop her at all costs...
...Kellogg made the Tchicherin statement public, La Follette said, but not the Calles reply, which put the Mexican government on record as not willing to aid in the exploitation of any cause "which it does not approve...
...to assume that it is would be a fatal mistake...
...This misrepresentation, which Senator La Follette asserted Secretary Kellogg must have made knowingly, related to a statement made by President Calles of Mexico in denying and repudiating the words of George Tchicherin, Soviet Foreign Minister, that the Communists were using Mexico as a base against the United States...
...THE NEW YORK HERALD-TRIBUNE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1927...
...The next week Mexican interference has suddenly vanished from Mr...
...The only difference is that in the future out diplomats will try to play their cards a little less bunglingly...
...Kellogg "the flimsiest sort of propaganda," and said the newspapers would not have used it and it would have "gone to the waste basket" it had not been supported by the head of the State Department...
...La Follette declared the Foreign Relations Committee should make an investigation of the "propaganda against a friendly government.'' put out by the Secretary of State...
...He has tried to conceal his defeat in a maze of diplomatic language, asserting that "there has been no change whatever in the government's policy," and that "from the beginning of the trouble over a year ago, the United States offered its good offices and exerted its influence to compose the differences...
...It is important that measures be inaugurated at once to end the present muddle in Nicaragua...
...We welcome the episode not only for its own sake, but as a sign that the country is at last beginning to throw off its long post-war apathy...
...The American Ambassador in Mexico City had expressed gratification with this Calles statement, La Follette asserted, adding: "Yet, in this vicious piece of propaganda, sponsored by the Secretary of State, the Calles reply is omitted...
...This does not mean, however, that the public opinion which has exerted itself so effectively can now afford to relax its efforts...
...No one should imagine that President Coolidge has put pressure on the State Department from any other than opportunist motives...
...It has succeeded single-handed in forcing Secretarj Kellogg to right-about-face on Nicaragua and Mexico...
...This statement is at most a half truth...
...He demanded investigation of the Olds incident by the Foreign Relations Committee...
...Do we want it continued ? If not, with what do we propose to replace it...
...The danger is far from ended...
...Kellogg's mind, Mexican Bolshevism has been forgotten...
...No one can suppose that Secretary Kellogg, and the powerful elements which stand with him, really believe they were in error, or have been converted to a new policy...
...Credit for the shift in the administration's attitude must be distributed in several places...
...Mr...
...He not only held up Secretary of State Kellogg to ridicule for being the sponsor for "flimsy, fishy and vicious propaganda" in putting out his memorandum concerning Bolshevist dangers, but he also charged that Secretary Kellogg had wilfully suppressed parts of a document to make out his case...
...THE BALTIMORE SUN, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1927 THE OFFENSIVE was picked up at the (joint where Senator Borah left off yesterday, for, whereas he paid little attention to Mexico, that country was today the principal subject of discussion...
...the attempt to bully Mexico into following our wishes is sure to be continued...
...Even as to the oil law dispute itself, he is today singing exceedingly small...
...On the contrary...
...Senator La Follette called the document put out by Mr...
...Two weeks ago our government was talking war...
Vol. 19 • January 1909 • No. 2
