Constitutionalists cheered the American flag when they entered
Tampico.

I believe that Mexico City will be much quieter and a much safer
place to live in after the Constitutionalists get there than it is
now. The men who are approaching and are sure to reach it are much
less savage and much more capable of government than Huerta.

These, I need not tell you, are not fancies of mine but conclusions
I have drawn from facts which are at last becoming very plain and
palpable, at least to us on this side of the water. If they are not
becoming plain in Great Britain, it is because their papers are not
serving them with the truth. Our own papers were prejudiced enough
in all conscience against Villa and Carranza and everything that
was happening in the north of Mexico, but at last the light is
dawning on them in spite of themselves and they are beginning to
see things as they really are. I would be as nervous and impatient
as your friends in London are if I feared the same things that they
fear, but I do not. I am convinced that even Zapata would restrain
his followers and leave, at any rate, all foreigners and all
foreign property untouched if he were the first to enter Mexico
City.

Cordially and faithfully yours,
WOODROW WILSON.

HON. WALTER H. PAGE,
American Embassy,
London, England.

On this issue, however, the President and his Ambassador to Great
Britain permanently disagreed. The events which took place in April,
1914--the insult to the American flag at Tampico, the bombardment and
capture of Vera Cruz by American forces--made stronger Page's
conviction, already set forth in this correspondence, that there was
only one solution of the Mexican problem.

_To Edward M. House_

April 27, 1914.

DEAR HOUSE:

. . . And, as for war with Mexico--I confess I've had a continually
growing fear of it for six months. I've no confidence in the
Mexican leaders--none of 'em. We shall have to Cuba-ize the
country, which means thrashing 'em first--I fear, I fear, I fear;
and I feel sorry for us all, the President in particular. It's
inexpressibly hard fortune for him. I can't tell you with what
eager fear we look for despatches every day and twice a day hurry
to get the newspapers. All England believes we've got to fight it
out.

W