BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

140 BARBAROUS MEXICO
country ever had. Could anybody imagine Mr. Roosevelt
being re-elected by a unanimous vote? Moreover,
could anyone imagine a country of 15,000,000 souls in
which ambition never stirred the heart of more than one
individual with the desire to stand before the people as a
candidate for the highest office in the nation?
And yet this is exactly the condition we find in Mexico.
Eight times Don Porfirio has been seated as 'president."
Eight times he has been elected 'unanimously." Never
has an opponent stood against him at the polls.
And the story of the presidential succession is repeated
in the states. Re-election without contest is a rule which
has seen exceedingly few exceptions. The governor of
the state holds office for life, unless for some reason he
loses favor with Don Porfirio, which is seldom. A member
of the Mexican upper class once put the situation to
me quite aptly. Said he: "Death is the only anti-re-electionist
in Mexico." The chief reason why the states are
not governed by men who have been in office for thirtyfour
years is because those who were first put in have
died and it has become necessary to fill their places with
others. As it is, Colonel Prospero Cahuantzi has ruled
the State of Tlaxcala for the whole Porfirian period.
General Aristeo Mercado has ruled the State of Michoacan
for over twenty-five years. Teodoro Dehesa has
governed the State of Veracruz for twenty-five years.
When deposed in 1909, General Bernardo Reyes had governed
the State of Nuevo Leon for nearly twenty-five
years. General Francisco Canedo, General Abraham
Bandala and Pedro Rodriguez ruled the States of Sinaloa,
Tabasco and Hidalgo, respectively, for over twenty years.
General Luis Terrazas was governor of Chihuahua for
over twenty years, while Governors Martinez, Cardenas
and Obregon Gonzalez ruled the States of Puebla, Coa-