Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-09-09
GIVES OTHER SIDE TO
ACAP0NETA LAND GRANT
MEXICO COMPANY WRITES TO
THE HERALD
Offers to Buy at Twenty-Five Cents
an Acre All Lands Said
to Be WORTH
less

In answer to an article which appeared
recently in The Herald the Association
Finanoiera International of Mexico writes
as follows
I'VE are today in receipt of an article
that appeared la the daily Herald, under
date of August 25, referring to an inyesti-
cation of certain tract Of land known as
the Acaponeta Land Grant. and located In
the territory of Topic. in which It is stated
that the lands are worthless, and
furthermore that the Association Financiera
International (of which 1 have the honor
of being manager of it's real estate depart
ment), were endeavoring to realize over 100
per cent profit on the sale of these lands
I'm justice therefore to Byron Hail.. presi-
dent of the La Prosperidad Colony associa-
ton and ourselves permit me to favor you
with little information covering these
negotiations Mr.. Hall endeavored to secure
a concession in Lower California from the
Mexican government, and employed the SER
vices of some of the most prominent attor-
neys in our city to assist him in the secur-
ing of said concession. Being unable to
have the Mexican government grant said
concession he then took up with us the Sc
curing of a large tract of land suitable Tor
colonization purposes for his colony, at
which time we submitted him the Topic
lands, the report submitted by us having
been compiled by X. IL. Seibel, prominent
engineer (whose address is GIT Royal lnsur-
ance building Chicago, c. M. Wellsford,
thorough land expert from Texas, together
with the report that was compiled by VIII
liam H. Wallace of Long Beach, was salts
factory evidence to us that great majority
of these lands were suitable for agriculture
and grazing purposes, and as our contract
with the government called for a selection
of /, 900, 900 acres from about 5000, 600 selec-
ton to be made by us on any part of the
lands owned by the government in the terri
tory of Tepic we felt that we were sub
hitting a proposition for Mr.. Halls colony
that would appeal to them for the reason
that these reports certainly proved the prop
erty to contain all the necessary elements
for colonization purposes.
1.-THE difficulty with the lands at the pres
ent time is their isolation from transporta-
ton, but as the Southern Pacific railroad is
now building from Guaymas to GuadalaJara,
these lands (when the railroad is completed
into the city of Tepic) would be within
close touch of railroad and therefore at
price OF 60 cents per acre would be excep-
tionally reasonable. After securing our con
tract for the sale of the property Mr.. Hail
sent to Topic several gentlemen to examine
these lands, amongst whom was a DR..
Bailey. This gentleman got into contro-
versy, it seems, with the La Prosperidad as
sociacion in reference to statements made by
DIR. Wiley, who claimed to act as our rep
resentative in Topic. While DR.. Wiley has
done considerable work for our association
and Is at present In good standing with us,
he, however, was not and is not at present
the representative OF the association in the
territory of Topic We were aware of Dr.
Bailey's statements and Furthermore that
DR.. Bailey had claimed that the lands could
be purchased at 25 cents per acre. We fur
thermore took the matter up with Dr.
Wiley and under date of August he wrote
us placing DR.. Bailey in an exceptionally
bad light Personally we do not desire to
enter into any discussions relative to any
internal dissensons that may exist between
the La Prosperidad colony and any OF its
members, but we do feel that we should not
allow an article such as published to pass
by without replying to same, owing to the
standinR our association enjoys. not only in
Mexico but throughout the United States.
THE writer will further state that II these
lands can be purchased at price of 25
cents per acre we are prepared to pay spot
cash for same and grant them. or any per-
son acquiring these lands, a commission of
100000 for securing same at this figure.
These lands as you are aware come to us
direct from the Mexican government, and
the price of public lands is "a per hectare
a hectare being 2,47 acres. Therefore you
viii understand how impossible it would be
to secure these lands at the price stated"