The Portland daily press., 1886-12-21

clearing and cultivatipg of the soil. Owen
is now In Sinaloa with his advance-guard of
eolonists from Colorado, Texas and Califor-
mia. Some 1000 city lots have been pur-
chased for $4,000 and 1900 acres of farm
land for $4,000. A few houses will be built,
the ground cleared and staked off, the plan
of the city laid, and the farm lands divided,
by the time the bulk of the colony arrives
next spring.
THE FINANCIAL BASIS.
The Credit Foncier has a nominal capital
of $1.000,0OO. About $4,000 shares have been
taken so far, realizing $15OOOO About
S35O,0OO in United States money and some
100000 in real estate have also been
pledged by stockholders, as deposits, bear
ing interest, with the Credits Department of
Deposits and Loans. The land already pur-
chased has cost sS35.O00 A steamer Of 500
tons burden was to be bought for $4,000. A
Motel, overlooking the harbor, to be built for
S2OOOO section of the colonial headquar-
tiers and ten model houses for $4,000 more.
Thirty Thousand dollars were to be spent on
q pipe line of thirty or forty miles to the Rio
Enerte for irrigation and drinking water.
Finally newspaper was to be published at
an outlay of s., 900, and $4,000 more voted
for Incidental expenses. This would leave
$4,000 still in the Treasury, and the greater
part OF the money spent coming back, OF
in the shape of lands and houses.
This was the first scheme of the Board of
Directors and all would have gone smoothly
alone the lines, If the Texas, Topolobampo
and Pacific railroad had kept on building
But in July or August last the Mexican gov
ernment withdrew its subsidy of S5,376 a
mile, and the construction company precipi-
lately abandoned work. The railroad COM
pany showed the white feather too, leaving
the poor colonists in the lurch. Owen was
equalto the emergency, however. He now
proposes that the Credit Foncier buy 1000
shares -one-fourth of all of the Texas, Top
olobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph
Company, and 2S000 shares-also one-fOurth
Of all of the Mexican-American Construc-
tiOn Company-for $500, 900, and gave in pay
ment bond for thirty years at 6 per cent, it
being further agreed that 200 shares more
Of the railroad and telegraph company be
pooled with the Credit F0ncer in case of
q vote to sell. The cost of thirty-fye miles
Of railway from Topolobampo to the river
Fuerte would be, at most, $500 q mile. or
$i92,50O in all. But 500 colonists will be en-
ployed on the railway and part of the ex-
pense, the profits of the construction, will
thus be saved the corporation itself. And on
these easy terms too, the Improvements in
the first plan will all be carried out The
Credit Foncier, in fact, as it appears in all
stock company to which each colonist is at
once creditor and debtor. All middlemen
are suppressed. What single corporation
does in a single branch of business, bank
ing, railroading, mining, lighting the streets,
furnishing conveniences Of one sort or an
other, it does in all branches together. The
Credit Foncier will own everything and man
age everything. No coloniSts can have
any dealings directly with another
colonist, but only with the State. All
will be functionaries and of equal rank
the director himself who manages the public
business, and the woman who scrubs the
public halls. There are to be no servants
and no masters, no creditors and no debtors
within the corporation itself. No society,"
partnership. or even church, is longer pos
matter purely, and priesthood is abolished.
Marriage, however, though sort of con-
tract. is both allowed and encouraged, and
society is to be based on strict monogamc
rules.
THE CoLoNIsTs.
The Credit Foncer of Sinaloa published in
October last partial list of colonists-1, ,423
adults in all-with their probable occupa-
tions. There were 256 housewives promised,
1876 farmers, 50 carpenters, 35 clerks, Al
laborers, % blacksmiths, % painters. % mer-
chants, 21 civil engineers, 81 printers, IS
miners. and II dressmakers. Twenty-nine
put themselves down as teachers and 20 as
STOCK ralsers. There were 10 telegraphers,
musicians. stenographers, and Inventors.
One man Lad the hardihood to profess au-
thorship. and there were two preachers, one
clocutionist, one lecturer and seven editors.
On the whole the list was well balanced, 1888
representatives. Seven editors will, doubt
less, prove too great a burden for The
Credit Foncier in its new quarters, and many
other occupations, of course, will droop or
vanish altogether. And when personal
tastes about work and hap-hazard assign
ments clash, the real tug in the cooperative
system will come.
There is little hymn that the Sinaloan
colonists sing often, running thus:
In beautiful land, as dream,
is palace and city all new,
Prophetical vision, deem,
This mystical city most true.
From Dreamland, o CITY, arise,
For shadows the substance must be-
Ana he who has faith, and who tries
This beautiful city shall see.