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34
MEXICO'S DILEMMA

valuables and continued to puff at the cigarette.

In front of the National Palace two companies of soldiers in impossible field uniforms, some barefooted, and all dirty, paraded behind a military band.

People crowd into the shops. There is so much business shop-keepers are as independent as an American firm without competition. On the side streets some policemen or boy-scouts are drilling and receiving instructions from officers.

Aside from the newspapers and the posters in the windows one would not suspect that there is a war in Europe.

From the shop windows one learns that there is a great war in progress, and one learns it from the Germans. In many windows are large maps of Europe showing Germany and the Central Powers in red and the Allies in black. The neutrals are "yellow." The map is labelled: "The Defensive War of the Central Powers." It is a clever bit of German propaganda. Although only about two out of every ten Mexicans can read and write, all can understand pictures. This map, even without a heading, tells a story which the Mexicans can comprehend.

Another cartoon pictures a bull fight. All bulls representing the Allies are defeated and the German bull defiantly gazes at Uncle Sam, who is standing at the edge of the ring. A man representing Mexico is standing beside Uncle Sam and urging him not to get into the ring.