The Press: Conquest of Mexico

No U.S. private citizen, least of all a newspaper publisher, has ever before been decorated twice by the Mexican Government. First to make the grade is the Laredo (Texas) Times’s Publisher William Prescott Allen, a collateral descendant of the historian William Prescott (The Conquest of Mexico). Fortnight ago he got the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Sixth Class),† plus a medal never before awarded to a civilian, Mexican or otherwise: the Military Order of Merit (Second Class).

Publisher Allen had worked hard for his decorations. More of a Western Hemisphere propagandist than a newspaperman, he has been friends with Mexican Presidents—left, right or center—from Calles to Avila Camacho. Now 46, he has been scurrying back and forth across the Rio Grande for 26 years. He understands Mexicans and they understand him.

The Laredo Times sells no more than 11,000 copies, but 3,500 of them go across the border into Mexico. Only one other Border paper (El Paso’s Herald-Post) is printed partly in Spanish. Allen became the darling of Mexico when it expropriated U.S. oil holdings. He took Mexico’s side—a move which very nearly got him ostracized by furious Texas oilmen.

A hotheaded, crusading editorialist, Publisher Allen has long used his newspaper as a sounding board for Mexico’s case. More than once the State Department has used him as a sort of unofficial ambassador and border listening post. He has acted as guide to such visiting dignitaries as Vice President Henry A. Wallace, entertained visiting Mexican officials, inevitably turned up at important Mexican state functions.

This week Publisher Allen was preparing a gala blowout in Laredo for Mexican Defense Minister ex-President Lazaro Car-lenas, on tour of Mexico war plants. Also invited were Lieut. General Walter Krueger, commanding the U.S. Third Army, the Air Forces’ Major General Hubert Harmon, other military bigwigs.

†Other U.S. holders: Songstress Grace Moore and the late Amelia Earhart.