CHAPTER II
The Mexican puzzle
TROUBLE and revolutions are two things which can be started without money. It doesn't require money to start a street fight nor does it require gold to upset a nation.
This is not more true of any place than of Mexico. The seven years of strife which the people south of the Rio Grande have had are not due to a fat treasury. But Mexico has reached the place now where it knows that money is necessary to end a revolution.
More than a century ago when France was experiencing the internal disorders which infest Mexico a revolutionist remarked that "Revolutions are not made with rosewater." To-day the Mexicans will tell you that the evils of a revolution are not washed away with perfume, either. This requires money.
Early in the summer of 1917 the Mexican Government invited Mr. Henry Breure, former City Chamberlain of New York, and two expert accountants, including Mr. Thomas W. Lill, who spent nine years helping to reorganise the Philippine Government, to establish business methods in
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