from the Mexican Federal Government to certain authorities of the different election districts as follows:

In case any of the municipal authorities are affiliated with any of the militant parties you shall proceed to remove them from office with the utmost discretion. If that cannot be done, some prudent means must be used in order to secure a thorough understanding between said municipal authorities and the respective jefe politicos [political chiefs or supervisors].

Special care should be taken to appoint as supervisors and inspectors men who are absolutely trustworthy, so they will not hesitate to obey any orders they might receive.

If not too late, orders must be immediately given to the effect that polling places on estates or farms shall not be established at the towns where the municipal authorities reside, but on any of the convenient farms that may be within the limits of the corresponding electoral district, the main point being that elections must not take place in two-thirds plus one of the total number of election places.

In the polling places where voting may take place the blank tickets must be used to obtain an absolute majority in favor of the following candidates: For President, General Victoriano Huerta; for Vice-President, General Aureliano Blanquet.

Although Article 31 provides that returns of election must be sent directly to Congress, the supervisors must send these returns to the jefes politicos. The latter will then make a rapid examination of them, and if found to be in accord with these instructions they shall send them back to the supervisors, notifying them that the law provides they must be sent directly to Congress. If upon examination the jefes politicos find that voting has been held in more than a third of the polling places, the surplus ballots must be omitted, so that Congress shall receive only one-third or less of the total returns.

Absolute liberty must be granted to all citizens to enter protest against the validity of votes cast for any of the candidates except those referred to in the ticket named above.

If upon examination of the returns the jefes politicos find that the voting is not in accord with these instructions, they shall, before proceeding to send the ballots to Congress, make the necessary corrections, so that the returns and acts of the election appear in strict accord with these instructions.

After the elections the jefes politicos shall make a rapid résumé of data about the exact number of polling places where votes have been cast, sending a report to the Federal Government. That report must be made in cipher telegram on the same day as the election if possible. If not, then a letter in cipher must be sent through some absolutely trustworthy messenger.

These alleged instructions to render the elections farcical are so naïve as to induce one to believe they constitute some kind of huge joke. While it is not supposed that the Carranzists as a whole are much better in their rank

and file than are most other Mexicans as to their treatment of foreigners, the principle under which they have been organized deserves emphasis. It is the principle of constitutionalism. It is the principle for which Madero fought and died. It involves the seemingly hopeless task of introducing democracy among a people who for generations will not be fully prepared for it.

Belief in this principle is leavening a region of Mexico in which there is more hope than elsewhere. Its strongest hold is in the State of Sonora, the population of which has long been known as the most independent in Mexico. Sonora is in the northwestern part of Mexico. This State has declared itself independent of the Huerta government and is establishing itself as an independent government. The area of Sonora is greater than that of California, and, as it is a very mountainous region, the country can hold out for a long time against a large armed force. Indeed, owing to the topographical conditions, it is practically cut off from the rest of Mexico, having no direct communication with that country, its railway connection being with the United States. From Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, General Carranza declares that his army has more than eighty thousand men under arms (such a number seems incredible); that all the States, except three, have been invaded more or less by Constitutionalist officers; and that after eight months of struggle the territory invaded has grown continually larger, General Carranza further declares that Huerta's power would instantly fall if arms were allowed to be sent from this country to the Constitutionalists.

Our intervention in Mexico would involve sending a vast number of men into a most difficult country, where the entire population would doubtless sink their differences to unite against a foreign foe. This assurance has come both from the Huertist and the Carranzist forces.

It is believed by some, however, that the preliminaries of intervention might be effective. That is to say, we might blockade Mexican ports and control the termini of railways. It is hardly doubtful that such action, if taken with the co-operation of the most influential Latin-American Powers-Argentina, Brazil, Chile-would have the desired effect.

The benefit of such joint action, not to Mexico only, but to both American continents, is discussed in an editorial in this number in answer to the question "What Next?"

D

R. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, the famous English scientific and sociological writer, who recently passed away in his ninety-first year, was a man of marked personality. It was the good fortune of the writer some time ago to spend a day with him at his country home in Kent, near Broadstone, and to obtain from him first-hand an interesting account of his own life, together with his views on some of the many present-day topics on which the versatile mind of the naturalist delighted to speculate.

Dr. Wallace, with all his distinction as the co-discoverer, or rather expounder, of the theory of natural selection-sharing the honor with Darwin-and despite his many other achievements in intellectual pursuits, was a man of great modesty. It is seldom that greatness in this world is allied to humility; but Dr. Wallace possessed self-abnegation to a rare degree. This was evinced early in his career, when his researches in natural history led him to conclusions in natural selection identical with those of Darwin. In 1858 Dr. Wallace was in New Guinea and made a careful study of the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago, a treatise on whom he forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, President of the Royal Society. He requested Sir Charles to show his paper to Darwin, and the latter was astounded to find that young Wallace had worked out in its entirety his own ideas on natural selection. The reception of this paper by the President of the Royal Society compelled Darwin to "rush into print" with the "Origin of Species," thus receiving all the credit for the so-called discovery of natural selection. Dr. Wallace never attempted to deprive Darwin of any of the glory of the work, and when he lectured in America some years later insisted on paying all honor to his co-discoverer and friend.

Dr. Wallace's home life was ideal. He occupied a small tract of land called the Old Orchard, not far from the little village of Broadstone, one of the prettiest hamlets of Kent, about five hours' ride southwest from London. His house was of the rambling English country type, and stood

Elsewhere in this number is an editorial on "Dr. Wallace and Spiritualism."

on a knoll commanding a view of the town of Pool and its pretty harbor. Here Dr. Wallace spent the evening of his days, devoting his spare time, when not writing books and magazine articles, to raising chickens, gardening, cross-country walking, and playing chess with neighbors who chanced to call. Up to within a year or two ago Dr. Wallace had been assisted in his work by Mrs. Wallace, who helped to prepare all his manuscripts and to read the proofs of his various books and articles: Dr. Wallace, like our Mark Twain, did all of his work with a pen, and never cultivated dictating to stenographers or using a typewriter. He made it a point to turn out each day about six thousand words-a high average for literary production.

As President of the English Society for Land Nationalization Dr. Wallace took a keen and active interest in the crusade of Chancellor Lloyd George against landlordism. Dr. Wallace's book on Land Nationalization has recently sold extensively throughout England, and accomplished much toward educating the democracy as to the power possessed by those who own the soil.

There was scarcely a living topic of the day in which Dr. Wallace was not interested. He was a great believer in country life, and one of his dreams was the "demagnetization of great towns. He believed that a return to country life was a' panacea for many social evils, and lent every encouragement in his power to the efforts put forward in many parts of England to build "garden cities." The reading of Edward Bellamy's famous "Looking Backward exerted considerable influence on the mind of Dr. Wallace, and it was the attempt to carry out some of the ideas of Bellamy that gave the learned Doctor the reputation of being an out-and-out Socialist. Among others who exerted a strong influence on his mind were Robert Owen, Adam Smith, and Ebenezer Howard. The last-mentioned person was the builder of the first English" garden city" at Letchworth, in which enterprise Dr. Wallace was deeply interested. He hoped by building numerous "garden city" centers near the big towns to attract most of the residential population away from the latter, and thus, in time, to de