There may be 140,000 or 150,000 men under arms in Mexico, but what is that in comparison to the 15,000,000 people who continue to live without fighting, who have to be fed, clothed and even amused? The longer the revolution lasts the happier will be the lot of the average peons, for every added day will decrease the chances of the reactionary landowner to come back and through legal means deprive the Indian of this land. The French revolution lasted almost ten years. When the Bastille was stormed about 25,000 aristocrats and prelates owned all the land in France. When Napoleon came into power as Emperor over half a million people owned land in France. In Mexico over 65,000 haciendados are in possession of the country, but a great majority of them are not on their haciendas, many are in exile. The revolution has lasted about four years. The longer it lasts the more chances there are that the original proprietors will stay away and the latifundiæ will be divided automatically. The peons are more interested in the ownership of the land than the question of peace, the ballot, or who is going to be president or governor; they are indifferent as to who will loan or will not loan money to the Mexican government; if the Mexican consols are rising or dropping in value, as long as the haciendados keep away long enough to give him a chance to claim the land as his own. A little cultivation will give him all the food he needs, what he does not need he will sell and buy with it a few necessities. For the success of the revolution it is vital that it should continue until every reactionary element, the clergy, the landowner, the army chiefs have been so thoroughly beaten that they will have no opportunity to come back and play a political game of which they know all the tricks. The reactionary elements must be so fearful of the wrath of the revolutionists, must be made so poor, that they will never come back again. Carranza is right and so is Cabrera when they say that the land must be taken wherever it can be found; that the revolutionists must carry out the reforms with the power of their bayonets or they will never be consummated. That those who speak of a constitutional government and of elections are the reactionaries who want to play the game and arrest the triumphant march of the revolution. Madero was elected constitutionally, so was a congress, so were the senators and the governors. The ministers sat in council. What happened to the reforms of the plan of San Luis Potosí? Reactionaries like Ernesto Madero and Rafael Hernandez who sat in the cabinet for two years, very effectively canned all the reforms. The revolution had to be fought all over again. If Villa backed by the reactionary elements should control the destinies of Mexico, then it would be only a question of a few months until a new revolution would overthrow his régime.