Northwest labor press., March 18, 2016, Page 3, Image 3

NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | March 18, 2016 | PAGE 3
Labor 100 Years Ago — March 18, 1916
A look back at the front page stories of the Oregon Labor Press, March 18, 1916. A digital version of the front page can be seen at www.nwlaborpress.org/100yearsago
* Must American Workers Reap Cyclone Sown by the American Plunderers?
By Chester M. Wright
With American soldiers in Mexico for
fighting purposes, this country is perilously
near to war with all of Mexico, for if there
is one sentiment upon which a majority of
Mexicans can unite, it is dislike for the
American.
*
This is natural. American political and
financial plunderers have sown the whirl-
wind in Mexico for decades. Long before
the war of 1847 in which this country’s des-
perate slavocrats plotted and brought on
war between the two countries and then
bribed Mexican leaders into shameless be-
trayal of their armies, Americans have been
working havoc in Mexico.
The capitalists and political crooks of the
United States have done everything possi-
ble in Mexico to inspire hatred for the
“Gringo.” In the face of this it is fair to as-
sume that an armed United States expedi-
tion in Mexico will before long meet with
universal opposition, despite the assurances
of Washington and taking them at their face
value.
American labor must be on the alert!
There must be no war with Mexico! Amer-
ican workers do not want to fight Mexican
workers! Workers of both countries
have a big enough job fighting the
looters of both countries!
Congressman Meyer London says
that this country ought to police Texas
and not Mexico. He didn’t say enough.
He didn’t say it all. This country ought
to police its financial marauders! This
country ought to police Standard Oil
and Guggenheim and the big copper
interests. It ought to police Wall street.
This country ought years ago to
have begun to police its financial brig-
ands. Almost every particle of friction
between the two nations can be traced
to the grasping of American privateers
after the natural wealth and the cheap
labor power of Mexico.
What American workingman wants
to be drawn into a war brought on by
such causes? What American working
man wants to fight brother workers un-
der those conditions—or any other?
Mr. Hearst and Mr. Rockefeller and
Mr. Morgan and the Guggenheims
may have something to get in Mexico
that they will care to fight for—but
what workingman has anything to get
there that he wants to fight for?
Washington says it wants [Pancho]
Villa and will stop when he is caught.
Wall street wants all Mexico. Will
Washington or Wall street give the or-
der when to stop?
John Lind charges— and he ought
to know— that Villa was financed by
Americans. No American money, no
Villa and no Villa raid. Washington is
after Villa, but what about his Ameri-
can partners?
What effort will there be to “get”
the Americans whose money made
Villa’s aggression possible? That is the
thing that American workers are inter-
ested in. But there will be no expedi-
tion sent to Wall street under the re-
doubtable Fred Funston. Wall street
just now is being patriotic; it is waving
the Stars and Stripes overtime. And
Mr. Hearst is printing the Stars and
Stripes in his paper lavishly.
This whole Villa affair is a rotten
mess. It ought to make every thinking
American sick at heart. It ought to
make every American workingman re-
solve that his own country must clean
up. And that is the workers’ job. We
must clean America.
Look out! No war with Mexico! No
worker has any fight with Mexico!
Our job is in America! And if we take
care of America there will be no ex-
cuse for war with any other country!
Let us wipe the mud off our own map!