rvention of the United States. But on April 25
the Governments of Argentina, Brazil and Chile proposed mediation,
which Wilson and Huerta promptly accepted. A conference met at Niagara
Falls, Ontario, and through May and June endeavored to reach a
settlement not only between the United States and Mexico, but between
the various Mexican factions. The President was still attempting to
carry out his policy of August, 1913, and the chief obstacle was not
Huerta, but Carranza, who had refused to consent to an armistice and
for a long time would not send delegates to Niagara Falls. Meanwhile
Huerta made one concession after another. Watchful waiting had indeed
ruined him; for President Wilson's opposition had made it impossible
for him to get any money in Europe--and in the early part of 1914 some
European nations would still have considered Mexico a good risk.
Moreover, from February to April the embargo on arms had been lifted,
and the Constitutionalists armies in the north, munitioned from the
United States, were steadily conquering the country. On July 15 Huerta
resigned, and soon afterward sailed for Spain; and on August 20
Carranza entered Mexico City.

Despite the criticism that had been heaped on the President's handling
of the Tampico-Vera Cruz affair, he had got rid of Huerta without
getting into war. A still more important consequence, the full effect
of which was not immediately apparent, was the enormous increase in the
confidence felt by Latin America in the good intentions of the Wilson
Administration. The acceptance of A-B-C mediation in 1914 made possible
the entry of most of the Latin-American powers into the European War in
1917 as allies of the United States. And for a time it was to appear as
if this had been about the only tangible profit of the episode; for
Carranza presently proved almost as troublesome as Huerta. The Fall of
1914 saw the outbreak of a new civil war between Villa and Carranza, in
which Zapata, Villa's ally, for a long time held Mexico City. Obregon's
victories in 1915 drove Villa back to his old hunting grounds.

By this time the European war was occupying most of the attention of
the American people, but Mexico was a constant irritant. Carranza
carried the Presidential art of biting the hand that fed him to an
undreamed-of height. Wilson, Villa and Obregon had enabled him to
displace Huerta, and Obregon had saved him from Villa. Yet he had
quarreled with Villa, he was eventually to q