The Sentinel=record., 1912-08-18
MEXICAN PEONS
 CANNOT COLONIzE
EFFORT TO SOLVE LABOR plFFl CULTiES BY coLoNlzING
 STRIKERS NOT LIKELY.
Mes. of the Strikers Are roo Poor to Buy Seed Even if They Were
 Settled on Land.

Mexico City, Aug 17.-Labor trou- bleS and an attempt to settle them by means of establishing colonies on government lands have brought to light a difficulty which the govern ment had not as yet realized. The strike of textile workers in Orizaba demonstrated that the unions were ready to stand together and that they would fight attempts to blacklist, any of their number. An attempt to set tie the question by colonizing the strikers and bringing in others was met by the refusal of the strikers to be colonized
 The reasons they gave were that they were for the most part poor and forced by the very low rate of wages paid to live almost from hand to mouth and had no money to purchase seed or to live until their crops could be harvested. It was further objected that the lands offered them for colonization were rough and in many cases covered with underbrush CT timber which would have to be re. moved before the crops could be planted. in many cases the land of fered was so far from communica- tion that crops could not be mar keted.
 The mortgage and loan association, granted a chartetr by the government, VI itais sas ..iiiS iitsntiofi tirat it should tide over just such cases as this, refused to furnish the money necessary to finance the scheme without the au- thorization of congress or the person al guarantee of the cabinet which would protect them in case the con- gress conyening in September should refuse to authorize the expenditure of the money. The sum necessary for the undertaking was estimated a. $90,000 for 1000 men with their fam flies, or S90 per family. The cabi. net refused to guarantee the loan and the textile strike and the colonization question are still unsettled.
 The use of the bed of Lake Tex coco now being drained to provide arabic lands for the Indians living on it's banks is meeting with much crit icism from scientists and physicians. Medical statisticians have attempted to demonstrate that whenever the level of the lake has gone down an epidemic of typhus fever has resulted, and have gone so far as to compare the relative level of the lake with the death rate from that disease. Agri- culturists have made chemical andy sis of the land on the shores of the lake and in it's bottom and have stat ed that no known vegetation will grow there The analysis show alkalies of various kinds and insouble sulphides.
 The latter argument aroused the most interest on the part of the gov ernment commission in charge of the drainage of the lake and experiments are now being instituted to prove or disprove the theory. Trees and plants both foreign and native to Mexican soil are being planted on the shores of the lake and their growth care fully observed to determine which, if any, are suitable to the alkali soil. Experiments are also being made in washing the soil in an attempt 10 as certain whether such procedure would be beneficial on a large scale. The commercial possibilities of the recovery of any soluble salts are also being looked into.
 One of the purposes of draining the lake was to do away with the continu- al sand storms which now assail the capital, which would make the drain ing of the lake disadvantage in case the land should not lend itself to cul- tivation Indians living along the lake would furthermore be deprived of the scanty livelihood they now de rove from the sale of various forms of aqueous products from the lake
 The first general elections for sen ators and deputies to the national as.