Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-01-05
WILL GIVE LAND
BACK TO PEOPLE
Carranza Plans to Break Up
Great Mexican Estates and
Give Plots to Poems
to Till.

Eagle Pass. Ten. Jan. $.-Many
wealthy Americans and British will
suffer heavy financial losses by the
carrying out of General Carranza's
agrarian policy in the states he con-
trolls, it is believed by Americans who
have arrived here from Mexico re-
Gently.
The policy means the division
of millions of acres of former Com
munity lands among the original
owners or claimants or their heirs.
of rich Americans, British and Next
can lords of the land will be stripped
of their rich and fertile possessions.
Most of these great landed estates
were acquired. it is alleged. by the
illegal dispossession of whole COM
natives. Their small holdings We're
taken from them with the knowl-
edge and sanction of the Porfirio
Diaz administration and massed into
estates of which some are almost as
big as the state of Delaware.
Most of the great ranches and
farms which foreigners own are com
posed of former Community lands"
Various properties We're purchased
from the Mexican owners, who gave
h was regarded then as good
title to them. While no statistics are
available as to the amount OF land
in Mexico that is owned by Amer
leans, it is known to aggregate many
millions of acres. The most valuable
of these holdings are in the producing
oil ields OF the Tampico territory.
where American and British interests
are said to own and hold under long
time lease more than 10000, 900 acres.
How much of this was formerly COM
munity lands cannot be learned yet.
There are several American owned
y.n H. s~ N1>- C-A -
having an area of 50O,O 900
to 100000 acres each. Probably the
largest of these is the 1900, 900 acre
property of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst in
western Chihuahua. The socalled
Rockefeller- Aldrich syndicate owns a
1000 ,OO0-acre ranch in the state Of
Zacatecas and several other proper
ties of lesser acreage. Scattered all
through the states of Sinaloa, Sonora.
Michoacan, Vera Cruz and Chiapas
are big ranches and plantations
owned by Americans.
In the Hands Of Governors.
Much of the work of putting into
effect the new agrarian plan will be
left to the governors of the states,
1t is 1t is purposed that
an agrarian commission be appointed
for each state, with authority to di-
vide the community lands now en-
braced i'm these big estates and APP
pOi W luc Door DeODle.
Commissions of this character have
been at work for some time i'm the
states of Vera Cruz. Tamaulipas.
Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.
Gov. Jose Siurob, Of Guanajuato. who
a recently, appointed a similar COM
mission, telegraphS: The commits
sion has for it's object The restoration
of community lands to their rightful
owners who were illegally despoiled
under the Diaz regime. In addition it
proposes the divide municipal lands
among the Door for the purposes of
cultivation
Governor Siurob also mentions that
he has established 1.S00 schools in the
state since he took Office.
II the dividing OF municipal hands
is adopted AS a general policy by the
other states il will mean the providing
of homes and agricultural plots for
thousands of poor natives. Heretofore
the municipal lands have been of no
practical benefit to the people. For
the most part they are capable OF be-
ing made very productive. nearly all oi
them being irrigable.
The contamination of the new
agrarian policy means the end of the
agricultural aristocracy in Mexico. It's
CANT as the mobiles of France before the
revolutions: almost literally they old
the peols to "eat grass" 1t is motor
ious that the landed aristocrats grew
rich by favor of Diaz and his regime,
yet they benefited Mexico not a jot.
Most of these rarely visited their es-
tates. They lived like magnificos in
Europe, maintaining elaborate estab
lishments in Paris and Madrid. They
contributed very little to the support
of their own government. their lands
being free from taxation. On the other
hand, the poor and oppressed peon was
required to pay q tax on every goat
he killed for his own use out of his
own flock, and in many other ways he
was made to contribute to the revenues
of the government.
Besides dividing the community and
other lands among the poorer element
it is planned by the Carranza govern
ment to place a heavy tax upon all
unused land, n a somewhat lesser
tax on land that is occupied and in
actual use.