Since the U. S. is supervising on Nov. 4, 1928, the Presidential Election of Nicaragua (TIME, Oct. 8), the tidings of the week from Managua, Nicaraguan Capital, seemed pat and timely.
Cabled by Election Supervisor U. S. Brigadier General Frank Ross McCoy, was a report of "atrocities" committed in districts where it has been impossible to make U. S. supervision fully effective. The report mentioned "revolting cruelty," "victims hacked to pieces with machetes," "fingers severed in order to remove rings," "noses and ears cut off," and "bodies mutilated after death."
Such atrocities would more than justify U. S. intervention. They are ascribed by the McCoy report to a "gang led by Pedro Altamirano, trusted lieutenant of Sandino." The latter is of course General Augusto Calderon Sandino, who has raised the standard of revolt against U. S. occupation (TIME, Aug. 1 et seq.) and is still successfully defying capture by U. S. marines. Since Sandino depends wholly upon his fellow-countrymen for contributions to support his army, the news that he is cutting off the hands that feed him is peculiarly challenging to alert belief.
Easy to believe and equally timely were despatches stating that each of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates issued last week, a declaration that he not only favors the piesent U. S. electoral supervision, but will, if elected, request U. S. supervision of the Nicaraguan presidential election of 1932. When the substance of these declarations was made known to Secretary of State Frank Billings Kellogg, he commented: "Most gratifying!"