The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06
Bringing in Cattle on a Hacienda
Mexico City.

Mexico City.
~ UTSIDE the revolution proper
President Huerta and his ad-
- ministration have big oues-
tions to deal with. The Madero policy
has awakened the common people, and
congress is divided among their friends
and those of the big land monopolists
u The great trust here is the land trust.
Something like 1000 families own the
bulk of the good lands of Mexico and
for generations they have been ruling
the country. They have had their lob
byists here at the capital. and when
they have piped the statesmen have had
to dance. The power of this land trust
was well known to Porfirio Diaz, and
the opposition to it brought about the
downfall of his administration Presi
dent Diaz knew that the time had come
to divide up the lands, and he was
planning to tax them with view of so
doing. But the power of the hacienda
do in the federal congress and the state
Legislature was more than he could
overcome, and he failed. He tried to
tax the big estates which We're not in
cultivation, and to thus bring about
their division. But he was baked at
every turn, and the result was his
downfall.
What President Madero Did
1t was upon promises to bring about
a land division that Madero made his
campaign for the presidency. He
stumped the country, saying that If he
became president he would SO tax the
big estates that the owners could not
afford to keep them. He also said
that he might compel the haciendados
or large landholders. to give farms to
men who were working for them. He
told the poems that their wages would
soon go up to 81 day. He said they
would have a chance to buy land, and
that he would create class of small
farmers.
1t was these big landholders that
largely aided in bringing about the
defeat and death of Madero, and Presi-
dent Huerta and his party are indebted
to them. The common people, however,
have learned too much and gone too
far to recede The government knows
that there can be no permanent peace
without a movement toward division
of the lands, and congress is now try
ing to bring forth some scheme which
will result in such a division Ono
plan which is agitated is the restora-
ton of the communal lands about the
towns to the Indians who formerly
owned them And there are other plans
to wipe out the feudal system, which
now gives a few families this great
land monopoly and makes them the
ruling aristocrats of the country. the
fight of the future is to be between
the landIess and the small landholders
and the land monopolists, and it will
go on in one form or another until
Mexico belongs to the many instead of
to the few.
Among the Land BarOns
How would you like TO have 5oo"
families own the whole United States.
,ieto ha
same as that which exists in Mexico to-
dav There are men here who own
millions of acres of farming and graz
ing land, and who in addition have
mines, houses and gold galore.
Let me give you few instances. Inc
biggest landowner of all is Don Luis
Terrazas of the state of chihuahua
He and his immediate relatives own
outright over 1000 900 acres of the
most fertile lands of northern Mexico
They keep it in big tracts and the most
of 1t is employed for stock raising only
Terrazas brands 10000 calves every
year. and he has on his place enorr
nous droves of horses and mules and
f1ocks of sheep and goats. He owns
nearly all of the land between Chihua-
hua and the United States boundary
and you may ride further than from
New York to Washington on the rail-
road in crossing his farms from north
to south.
They are wider from east to west than
the distance between Baltimore and New
York. and indeed the boundaries are so
poorly defined that no one knows just
where they end. The people here say
that Terrazas does not know how much
land he has and that he could lose 1000
beef cattle and not feel the loss. He is
without doubt about the richest man in
Mexico. He is worth something like $780,
o0O,O00 and is the autocrat of the state of
Chihuahua.
Another man who has millions in this
same state is Enrique c. Creel, who was
formerly the Mexican ambassador at
washington. He is a son-in-law of Ter
razas, but is said to be worth about 500
000,oo0 in his own right much of it being
in land and cattle Mr.. Creel was born
in Chihuahua. His father was Ken
tuckian, who came to this country dur
ing the Mexican war and later on settled
here. He had a family of seven, and
Enrique c., the oldest boy, was named
after Henry Clay.
Greater Than Job
Just acros st4le border of Chihuahua 3
the state of Coahuila, where the Madero
family owns its vast estates, which are
now liable to confiscation. and little to
the southwark in San Luis Potosi. is
Encarnacion Ipina, who holds more than
100000 acres. Tpina has live stock which
the cattle. camels and sheep owned by
job, the famed monopolist of the Land of
Uz, and he also raises corn. wheat, beans
and potatoes. Nevertheless, not one-twen-
tieth of his lands are under cultivation,
and his Indian workmen cannot buy an
acre to hold in fee simple
Another big owner in the same state is
Mrs. Sarah H. De Lee. She has over
100000 acres, and Of these she cultivates
only $4,000.
In the state of Tlaxcaia, which is about
half the size Of Connecticut, 80 persons
or families own all the land and this
Notwithstanding the population is almost
100000. In the territory of Tepic. which
has over 10000 inhabitants, the country
Is practically owned by 81 families, and
in Tamaulipas lives Manuel Gonzales.
who owns 3.500.0oo acres, or an area which
Is almost two-thirds as big as Massa-
chusetts. Nevertheless. Gonzales culti-
Yates only one acre in every 700, and his
vast horde of poems do not own the land
upon which their rude homes are built.
The state of Vera Cruz is largely made