The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-08
roPoLoRAMPo.

the CO-OpeTdLlSS COlOny dS thS Lay ~
Topolobampo is getting along.
NY only excuse for not writing
before this time is that did not wish to
be considered bore, and after having
given a partial description Of the country
there has been nothing especial to write
about. OF course there is much to be
written concerning the vast richness OF
the soil, the salubrIty of the climate, the
perpetual verdure. the immense and con-
tinual growth and production OF many
kinds of vegetables that at the north have
to be planted every year, yield one crop
and die. But it would only be waste
of time, as the majority of people at the
north would only set it down as
exaggeration. Supposing 1 state this fact
that there are on the colony farm at La
Loeia pumpkin vines, that have been
bearing pumpkins summer and winter
for four years. How do you suppose l
could get a Kansas man to believe that
But one thing 1 will state, and L don I
care whether they believe it or not. l
have been here about eight months, and
have seen three crops of corn on the
same ground. When we came here last
December, one crop of corn was yet un-
harvested, much of it yet in roasting
ears; another crop was planted the first
of February and gathered in April and
May. Another crop has been planted
and is now about knee high. This has
been accomplished with only "high
water irrigation" and the rainfall of the
usual rainy season, which occurs
in July, August and September
and with proper irrigation three crops OF
corn can be raised on the same land an
nually. The rainy season is not a season
of continued rain. Every day or two
heavy rain cloud comes from the north
east about sunset and it rains heavily
for an hour or two and the mornings are
clear and cool and delightful. The hot
test we had was not as hot as had ex-
pected. For a week or two the temper
ature ranged from 100 to 1O6 In the
shade and l found it no more oppressive
than in Kansas and I don't think so
much so, because of the cooling breezes
that came up every day from the gnlf.
In three or four months more our
great irrigating canal-the largest work
that has been undertaken on this coast
of Mexico for 800 years-will be carry
ing the clear waters of the Fuerte onto
the north side of an $4,000 acre tract
of land belonging to the colony. When
hundreds of people can engage in agricul'
tural and horticultural pursuits and IN a
few months after the colony will be to
great extent self-sustaining. And from
there the main ditch will be gradually
extended to its completion at Pacific
City by the bay. In the mean time
force of men are at work blasting rock,
and enlarging the piers and wharfage at
the harbor, to better facilitate the land
ing of material for the construction of
the Mexican Western railroad, the work
on which will begin in earnest in Octo-
ber 1t will be built and operated by
the colonists, and its first objective point
will be Vageton, on the Fuerte river,
thirty-eight miles from Pacific City,
where there is fine water power that
may be utilized, and where the road will
at once command considerable traffic
with the mining districts in the
mountains. The Credit Fancier COM
pany is the first and only organization
of the kind that has ever existed. Where
in labor and capital are placed upon an
equal footing; where the whole people
work for themselves and engage in and
control the four great industries that go
to constitute the trade and commerce of
a country, and form the foundation upon
which the whole structure of civilization
is maintained, viz: agriculture, manu-
facture, transportation and exchange.
We do not claim to be doing anything
that has not already been done, or that
any other people could not do. We only
claim to have seen that all building, pri-
vate and public, and railroads, short and
long, across plains and over mountains,
are built by labor and operated by labor
labor does it all. And the laborer, the
municipality and the state should own
them all, and all the direct benefits
which may be derived from them.
The skill, the brain, and the labor
of men and women who toll
have made, adorned and utilized
everything of use to our race, and ninety
nine one-hundredths of those who have
done all the work have scarcely been al
lowed, by those who have cunningly
contrived to monopolize, by special acts,
all the benefits. food to eat, clothes to
wear or shelter to protect themselves.
We claim that there is no industrial
problem to solve. That when every
man works for himself his task will be
no task st all We are capitalists and
laborers in one. We are our own en-
ployers and work for ourselves. If we
build an irrigating ditch, or construct
water works, or build a railroad, or a
steamship, or telegraph lines. We have
made up or minds that they should be
ours, and we propose TO keep, and use
them for our own benefit. We don't pro-
pose 70 turn them over when completed TO
some "Big -Four" who never furnished
money enough to build two miles of
them.
To acquire these lands, and construct
this irrigating canal, these people have
pooled their money, their horses, wag
ons and harness, plOws, scrapers, imple-
ments, machinery and labor, and taken
the scrip of the colony for the same.
The cost of the land and its irrigation
viii be a mere bagatile compared to the
ral,.a Of Tia r,rnr,nrtr ns rnaasured hu