Arizona republican., 1916-06-19
The Swapping of Horses

We suppose there are still some persons who be- lieve in witches and others who indulge in belief that the future of potato depends upon the phase of the in which it is planted and that planetary influences exercised mankind Likewise there many democrats who profess to believe that a government cannot be changed while that govern ment is engaged in They therefore regard Mexican President Wilson's sheet anchor
 Where and how the notion originated that ad ministraton may not be changed or is not likely to be changed, during do not know. It be based upon the experiences of this any other country.
 The first president elected in this country dur ing a war was James Madison over whose party the anti English faction gained control. War de- cared by the United States June 1s 1872 It is said of Madison, AS president Madison was at his weakest and the Americans suffered ser ious reverses on land" The war was generally dis astrous for tbe United States and but for Eng lands pressing Napoleonc engagemen nt it would doubtless have been calamitous The re-elec- tion of Madison was not because the people willing to swap horses while crossing stream but because of the ascendancy of the party and the waning strength of the Federalists
 The next president re-elected during war wa. Abraham Lincoln, in 1884, who received 2l2 electoral votes 21 for George B. Mcclellan It was the pop. uar notion in the north that time and the election held solely in the north, that Mcclellan was friendly to the south; that his election would be 6 compromise with the south, that the would be ended with the great issues involved. unsettled Moreover Lincoln had become in four years the idol of the north and Mcclellan though an accomplished soldier had been long since discredited in the north Since then could not, have remotely figured in the reelection of any president of the United States. '.-. E
 In other countries almost every prolonged war has witnessed radical changes during its progress in the governments involved The most notable change oc- cured in the successful early Napoleonic war when the very structure of the French government was changed not by the people but by Napoleon himself In the present European have been change in the governments of all the entente powers except Russia really sweeping change of president in this country We have recently witnessed crisis in Italy France has had and has had other shifting of high officials The changes in the British government or that part of it in charge of the have been fre quent and almost kaledoscopic By all these changes the allies have profited In Russia Germany and Austria where important policies in time of stress are not controlled by parties have been no changes of government; in those countries changes could be effected only by revolution.
 We may conceive that if country with a strong determined, enterprsng leader is engaged in great war on the issue of which the future of the country hung would not want to change it's leader for new untried and inexperienced military cheftain
 But that is not the kind of situation with which we would be confronted in with Mexico. We would not enter the with a strong determined and entefprsing man at the head of the government but we would have. rather weak hesating man. to- tally inexperienced who his folly had permitted
 mere disorder which might have been easily put down in the beginning, to develop into which first would strain our available military resources to the utmost who instead of compelling for the American government had instilled among the Mexi- cans hatred for it and contempt for our arms
 Surely the people of the United States would not hesitate to swap that kind of a floundering horse while crossing stream. .