NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1667, 6 February 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

' —* — . ; If the cable message from Hcxioo City yesterday correctly represents the situation, the aspect of affairs in that disordered Republic must bo regarded as distinctly grave. The Madero Government is apparently powerless to cope with the military situation, for the rebel forces are reported to be equal in strength to the Federal troops, which aro unable to suppress the insurrection, > while the United States Government,'faced with the possibility _ of armed intervention, is temporising, properly apprehensive of a general rising against Americans in _ the event ol such action. The position of the. United States Government is an extremely difficult and delicate, ono. Notwithstanding the_ fact that foreign commercial interests are heavily involved in the present crisis in Mexico, the Monroe doctrine invests the United States with the first responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in the American Republics. Competent opinion has declared that the Mexican turmoil has its origin in the popular resentment against the land concessions of the Diaz Government to American and foreign corporations. The idea that "the land and the products of the land should belong to him wlio works the land" is rooted in the mind of tlio Mexican peasant. Considerable progress has been made by Madero in the direction of facilitating the acquirements of small holdings for the peasants, but, as one critic has remarked, President Madero "seems to have little sense of the power of advertising"; lie has not trumpeted his achievements; his administration has boon comparatively unostentatious; his power has not been "felt." Hence it is believed in many parts of his dissatisfied country that he has done nothing. Tlii.i Account# for Iho rcronrkablo juccesa which has attended tho ox-.

ploits of tho rebdl leader Zapata, whoso mouthpiccc, lier/cneracion, ' preaches the gospel of the "free- J land" theory. The prolongation of i her political troubles and consequent ] dislocation of commercial business i are, involving Mexico in ' strained relations with the United j States, England, France, and Qer- , many, and in cach of these coun- I tries newspapers have been raising i the cry of American intervention. 1 Conservative opinion in tho United ( States deprecates any such action on ! tho part of tho United States Gov- » ernment. In November last tho New York Post scouted the idea that anything "even remotely resembling a ease which would justify intervention" had been made out. But that was three months ago, and the aspect of affairs in Mexico has in the in- • terval changed for. the worse. "War with the Latin Republic," remarked ■ one American journal, "will bo no such off-hand affair as might bo supposed." , ;Tlie act of foreign intervention might conceivably unite all Mexico against the invader. I One of tho interesting conse- [ quonces of Mr. Bonar Law's oelc--1 bratcd spcech at Ashton-under-Lyne , I was a vigorous attack by Mr. J. L. : i Gavin, editor of tho Fall Mall ■ Gazette, upon Lord Northcliffe in ; i respect of the criticism of the speech t i in tho London Times and tha Daily Mdil. Lord Norihcliffe, bettor • known as Sir Alfred, Harmsworth, i is head of the most powerful news- . paper proprietary in Great Britain, i and when ho bought a controlling in-' s tercst in The Tines, tho general pub- ■ lie experienced a vague uneasiness > for the future, of the great daily ; journal, whoso dignified indepond- . ence and high principles had en- > dowed it with tho prestigo of a great ; national newspapor. Many people : have doubted whether The Times ■ could possibly continue to live up to 1 its past high traditions under a pro- • priotary that also owned tho Daily ; Mail, but it has been loft to Mr. 1 Gavin to publicly pronouncc jiidgi ment upon that point in the plain- , ' est of plain language, and tho oc- ; casion was tho evening of. 1 tho day ! upon whioh The Times dealt editori- • ally with tho Unionist Leader's speech on the subject of Imperial >' Preference. 'Some of Mr. Gavin's i fceling3 found expression in tho [ New Zealand press in a cabled ex* ■ tract from his article. He began 1 thus: ■ • ' ' To-day has marked for all moral pur- [ i»ses a bad epoch in the history of the , linglish press. The consequences of tho ' connection between the "Daily Mail" and "The Times"—newspapers now Under ' the same,chief influence—had not vet I been grasped by public opinion, For I some time, however, the gradual efforts | or theso strangely assorted journals to s "jiile the flats" had been apparent. The ; ;process is completed this morning, when | "The Times," in a leading article not [ headed "Idhabod," accepts the inevitable, . and adopts the policy, or non-bolicy, of the "Daily Mail upon Imperial Preference. ' This is' a moral disaster which ' might mnkp the dead Walters and Delano ■ turn in thdr graves.' "The Times," foli lowing the "Daily Hail" precisely on tho point 'whoro tho record of the latter —excellent, in some either, respects-hits [ been most varied and least defensible, re- ! minds us of nothing so much is Turner's picture 'of the: . lighting Temeraire,?' i with forlorn,-/majestio hull dragged- to , her last anchorage by the/bustling steain':. . I tug. But'that spectacte was heriio'. 1 This • ' is n0t..... ■ ; - 1 ! ■ Mr. Gavin then, turned his attention to Lord. Northcliffe, who, ha says, enjoys ."behind , the national 1 • [ scenes an extent and a kind of irroj' sponsible, despotism that no man 3 to be allowed by any r sane - society to f>osseßs.'i ; This system of i press control, he adds, "is in its ' very nature wr<jng. Wrong political l j ly, wrong morally. . .It is a 3 system in its nature and eseence absolutely incompatible with a , steady i reflection,of the real state of public j opinion'or with a sound influence i upon it." And that ib what many , people thought when tho : Harms- > worths took over The Times, j