goes on, some information still goes back and forth, and some Germans succeed, through Mexican and other neutral agents, in purchasing war materials in the United States; but the big moves are almost always nipped in the bud.
Not even the Austrian Consul in Monterey, the chief industrial and railroad centre in Northern Mexico, is able to get his carloads of sulphuric acid out of the United States, even though he has the largest wholesale and retail drug store in that part of the country. Whether his object is to divert this acid from war purposes, or whether it is for use in Mexico, it matters not. He was balked even when he organised, through Mexican workers, a wax-match factory, and ordered still more sulphuric acid. His business and that of his satellites may be the business of the Imperial German Government; and Uncle Sam is not taking chances.
The last spy offensive was another German failure, as both Mexico and the Germans are beginning to realise. Mexico and the United States in the mid-summer of 1917 were on friendlier relations than at any time during the war.
Since I wrote the first of the series of articles which has led to the composition of this book there have been certain events of more than ordinary significance that change, in some respects, the statements I made in those articles. Between the time of the writing and the publication of the article entitled "Rising or Setting Sun in Mexico," President Wilson recognised the de jure Govern-
