The Nome Daily Nugget

Official Paper
Nome, Alaska, October 30, 1913

It seems almost unnecessary to comment farther on the unfortunate muddle made by the United States in regard to Mexico. But now that there is a possibility of the real man of the administration kicking over the traces and handling the affair himself it may be interesting to see just what he has been up against.

In the first place Mr. Wilson's predecessor in the White House was never at any time a strong man. He was at one time the tool of T. Roosevelt and as long as he was merely the agent through which Roosevelt's policies were carried out and allowed to be nothing more than the conductor through which the Rooseveltian electric current passed he did very well. Anything that has ever been connected with Roosevelt has been extensively advertised. So it happened that William H. Taft received his share of the reflected glory from his chief's light. Also there was behind Mr. Taft a very powerful agency in the shape of a big brother who controlled something even bigger than a president, the Wall Street interests. Finally these interests egged Mr. Taft on to knifing the man who made him and he broke with Roosevelt.

Then came the revolution in Mexico and Taft wanted to do his duty, tried to do his duty and straighten things out. But brother Charlie and his Wall Street friends didn't want it straightened out in the only legitimate way it could be done and the thing hung fire until after the country had shown that it was tired of the republican party and its ways and had elected Mr. Wilson. Then Mr. Taft continued to do nothing and finally passed the buck to Wilson. It was not a very gracious act but nobody told him to do anything else, so Mr. Taft just let it slide over for the democrats to settle.

Had Mr. Grover Cleveland been president we would have heard very little about the Mexican situation and European interference. The whole matter would have been settled in about two weeks.

Had Mr. Wilson been president when he took up the burden dropped onto his shoulders by the man who ducked his responsibility at the behest of Wall Street it is probable that Mexico would have promptly been straightened out. But Mr. Wilson was new to the job. He had never been a professional politician. He had never made his bread and butter by blatherskiting the American public. He was a student and a deep thinker, but like all students he dealt largely with theories.

In the secretary of state that the democratic convention tied to his coattails Mr. Wilson certainly had the professional politician, but one who had been a complete failure when in business for himself. Mr. Wilson listened to the wisdom of the world degreed Master of Statecraft with the result that what Taft, the tool, had left in a deplorable state, Mr. Bryan, the lecturer made a hundred times worse by him. Ignorance in international matters.

That is how things came to the pass where the real man in President Wilson came to the front. Mr. Taft, the originator of the mess, is now lecturing to the students at Yale and thankful to be out of it. Mr. Bryan, who slipped on the Mexican banana skin which the republicans left on the political sidewalk is a bit stunned by the fall, and now thank goodness, the president of the United States, the real man of the administration, has at last taken up his burden and we may look for a speedy and satisfactory conclusion of the very tiresome Mexican situation.