File No. 812.00/2453.
[Extracts.]
Mexico, October 27, 1911.
My Dear Mr. Knox: The presidential elections occurred [Oct. 1 and 15] throughout the Republic without any untoward incident, Madero and his running mate for the vice presidency, Pino Suarez, being elected. * * * It may be said that the elections, while free from the influences of official menace through the police and army, were nevertheless farcical in character and in a very small degree representative of Mexican public opinion.
In the meantime disorders in a large part of the country continue. The famous bandit Zapata is overrunning and terrorizing portions of the States of Veracruz, Puebla, Morelos, Guerrero, and Mexico, and formidable bands have committed all sorts of crimes within 40 miles of the gates of this capital city. At the time of the sending of this dispatch the reports are that the Federal Army has engaged a band of 800 bandits some 50 miles from the City of Mexico and that fighting is still going on. In the States of Tabasco, Chiapas, and Sinaloa there exist at the present moment revolutionary movements unconnected with Zapata but equally hurtful to the public order and the resumption by the people of peaceful pursuits. It is probable that there will be a subsidence immediately, after the inauguration of Madero, to be followed later by a recrudescence of the disorders more formidable in character and over a wider territory, and that in response [Page 520] to the first genuine movement of discontent with the new Government not one but many Zapatas will appear.
I went yesterday by appointment to see President de la Barra and had a most interesting and significant interview with him. He said that the principal reason for his asking me to pay him a visit was to inform me that his brother, Luis de la Barra, had left for the States, holding an informal and unofficial commission both from him and from President-elect Madero to visit Gen. Reyes at San Antonio with the purpose of inducing him to abandon his hostile and revolutionary attitude and for the sake of his country to return to Mexico and exercise his political rights as a citizen. This errand concluded, he said that Don Luis would go to Chicago for the purpose of interviewing President Taft and of explaining to him in his name and in the name of Mr. Madero the general situation in Mexico, especially as it related to American interests, the policy of the Government in domestic questions, and the necessity of the exercise of rigid prosecutions by our Government on the frontier to prevent violation of the neutrality laws by revolutionary agitators.
Continuing his conversation the President confessed confidentially to me his serious apprehension concerning the prospects of the Madero Government. The President believed that the announcement of the condition of the national exchequer would produce a profound and disagreeable impression on the country. He also saw a serious danger in the lack of fitness and equipment of Madero for executive work and the handling of large affairs. He hoped, however, that if the first six months of the new administration passed without trouble the country might settle down into normal conditions. I here advanced the opinion that I believed the danger would more likely come after six months than before, because it would require at least that much time for the administration to develop its policy and alignments.
In conclusion the President informed me that on account of the acute political situation which existed Mr. Madero would anticipate the time of taking charge of the Government and that probably he (De la Barra) would retire from office on November 3 or 4, leaving almost immediately for Europe for eight months’ stay.
I have [etc.],