The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 66
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Walter Prescott Webb, at least five hundred and as many as five thou-
sand Mexicans were killed while deaths among white residents and sol-
diers were under two hundred. The Express stated that "not an innocent
Mexican citizen has suffered" as reprisals were only directed "in pursuit
of bandits or in defense of life and property." Historians have deter-
mined, however, that the death toll among Mexicans and Tejanos was
imprecisely recorded and may have been more than reported.41
The Houston Chronicle blamed the insufficient number of federal
troops along the Rio Grande as an invitation for trouble. The Chronicle
believed that Mexico perceived this absence as "evidence of weakness
and fear" on the part of the United States and issued a call to arms: "If
intervention must come, most of us would prefer to see the United
States go into Mexico rather than see Mexico come into the United
States." The Chronicle stated that American investment and the arrival of
railroads and commercial farming had reversed the economic stagna-
tion and improved the quality of life in South Texas. This "civilized life"
had brought waterworks, ice plants, electricity, and other improvements
that made the region "one of the most progressive sections of Texas,
and this, too, despite the handicap of a large and ignorant Mexican pop-
ulation." The increased wealth and lack of defense left an open door to
the "ignorant and illiterate Mexicans on both sides of the Rio Grande
that they could raise a little hell and secure a little plunder with immuni-
ty, and they tried it." Texas newspapermen viewed peaceful expansion,
expanded business, and prosperity as a vital part of progressive reform.
The Mexican Revolution appeared antithetical to American ideas of pro-
gressive change. To those Texans who felt threatened by the upheaval,
military intervention by the United States now appeared to be a very
plausible solution.42
Texas editors began to encourage wholesale armed reprisals against
Mexico as they continued to support neutrality in Europe. While
Texans, like other Americans, opposed Germany's policy of unrestricted
submarine warfare, the revolution in Mexico appeared far more threat-
ening to the state's immediate future. Fears of a Mexican uprising, espe-
cially in South Texas, where white Texans remained a distinct minority,
made their way into the news and editorials of the major dailies. Editors
pummeled Mexico as they believed the attacks and the rumors of revolt
represented a threat to the life, stability, and economic growth of the
" San Antonso Express, May 10, 14, 1916; Montejano, Anglos and Mexzcans, 117-125; F Arturo
Rosales, Pobre Raza (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 101o; Harris and Sadler, "Plan of
San Diego," 81-82. These historians are among an increasing number of historians who raise
questions about these events as reported in Texas newspapers and official reports.
4 Houston Chronicle, Aug. 14, 26, 1915.July
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/74/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.