Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-01-06
WILL GIVE LAND
BACK TO PEOPLE
Carranza Plans to Break Up
Great Mexican Estates and
Give Plots to Poems
to Till.

EaSie TaSS, Lex, jan. S.-Nany
wealthy Americans and British will
suffer heavy financial losses by the
carrying out of General Carranza's
agrarian policy in the states he con-
trols, 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.
1t means. in a word, thai hundreds
can lords of the land will be stripped
of their rich and fertile possessions.
Most of these great landed estates
We're acquired, it is alleged, by the
illegal dispossession of whole COM
munities of the poorer classes Of
natives. Their small holdings were
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.
Community Lands.
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
what was regarded then as good
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 fields of the Tampico territory,
where American and British interests
are said to own and hold under long
firCN 0ea co mono f6a,, % 0nO O0O oNroc
How much Of this was formerly COM
munity lands cannot be learned yet.
There are several American owned
ranches in the states of Coahufla and
Chihuahua having an area of 300, 900
to 100000 acres each. Probably the
largest Of these is the 1900. ooo-acre
property of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst in
western Chihuahua. The socalled
Rockefeller Aldrich syndicate owns g.
s,000. G00-acre ranch in the state of
Zacatecas and sevara, other proper
ties OF lesser acreage. Scattered all
through the states of Sinaloa, Sonora,
M%ichoacar, Vera Cruz and Chiapas
nre 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 announced. 1t is purposed that
an agrarian commission be appointed
FOR each state, with authority to di-
vide the community lands now en-
braced in these big estates and APP
portion them to the poor people.
Commissions of this character have
been at work for some time in the
states Of Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas
Nuevo Leon and Coahuila.
Gov. Jose siurob. CT Guanajuato, who
q recently appointed a similar COM
mission, telearap1s: The commits
sion has for it's object the restoration
owners who were illegally %despoiled
under the Diaz regime. In addition it
proposes the divide municipal lands
among the poor for the of
cultivation"
Governor Siurob also mentions that
he has established 1900 schools in the
state since he took office.
il the dividing. of municipal lands
Is adopted as II general policy by the
other states it 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 of
them being %irrigable.
Ends Landed Aristocracy.
Tie contamination of the new
agrarian policy means the end Of Thu
agricultural aristocracy in Mexico. Its
members We're are proud and AFRO
CANT Us the mobiles of France before The
revolution: almost literally they told
the o to cat 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-
iishments III Paris and Madrid. They
contributed very little to the support
OF their own government, their lands
being Tree 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
1T IS planned by the Carranza govern
ment to place a heavy tax upon al
unused land. and a somewhat lesser
tax on land that is occupied n in