The Washington herald., 1917-03-04


schemes for the betterment OF his state.
As there is no coal in Yucatan and tim
Der for firewood is not overabundant. he
| plans 10 introduce oil es the universal
fuel. OF course they don't need any fuel
for heating purposes, but they do need q
good deal Of II for power. especially In
the hundreds OF mills on the hacienfas
where the heneQuen Is squeezed out As
there is not a river or waterfall in the
whole country. naturally there Is no
water power. Hence oil Is the only prsc-
! teal solution 10 their high cost Of fuel
problem. Somehow nobody had thought
Of that before. The construction OF enor-
nous tanks Is in progress at Progreso
/ 10 hold. the oil brought over from Tam
pico. From these tanks It will be dis
tributed to all that big district comprising
the southeast OF Mexico. Wharves, cleo
trio railways and warehouses are being
put up and the public will undoubtedly
benefit greatly through the operations o.
this new company.
| lot Of Improvement Is also going on
! at another port in the southeast. that Of
Frontera. ia the state of Tobasco. which
! is an important shipping point for ba-
nanas and other tropical products. a
dredger has been set to work deepening
the channel. while wharves and othe-
necessary shipping 'eonveniences are soon
to be built When the dredging Of the
| channel is finished access can be had to
an extensive river where ocean ships Of
any draught can go without danger OF
getting aground.
Among the railroads projected is one
: on the south side OF the YucataL
peninsula connecting the territory ot
Quintana Roo with the port OF Belize
in British Honduras. This will give
an outlet for vast forests Of valuable
: timber that are now inaccessible. Not
a word has been printed about this
road up to date. but understand that
the capital is all arranged for and
that work will begin in a very short
time.
OF course This road is not nearly as
important as the one Gov. AlvaraGo is
preparing to construct TO connect Yu-
catan with the system OF Mexican rail
ways at the Isthmus OF TehauntepeC
and thus link up Yuc4tan with the
rest OF North America 1t will be the
biggest thing commercially that ever
happened to Yucatan-
A dyke is to be constructed for the
purpose OF diverting the waters OF the
Sonora River near the town of Ures
and irrigating extensive areas OF LAND
in that region. which at present are
unprOductiye on account Of the lack
OF water.
a large number of people have made
application 70 go into the pearl fish
ing in the Gulf Of California and nave
been grant that privilege by the gov
ernmcnt Not only have they been given
permission but the local authorities have
been instructed to aid them in every
way possible. Before the revolution this
pearl fishing privilege was given excius-
. lively to a foreign concern, that made
hardly any return 10 the government
from the enormous profits IL raked up
from the blue waters of the gulf. ThaI
concession was abrogated some time ago.
The sinking OF oil wells by the gov
eminent in the Tampico district is pro-
ceeding with ell possible speed and It
is expected that good results will soon
be obtsi-ed, as the locations selected
are all in proven oil territory. For that
matter II is pretty hard 20 fnd any con-
siderable section OF the east Mexican
coast that IL not oil territory.
The department Of labor OF the State
Of Coahuila has been asked to supply
hundreds OF men for the reopeuing Of
mines in that neighborhood. as the sup
Ply there is very scarce. The wages Of
fered are good and all employees are
supplied with food at cost
This however. is insignificant beside
what Gov. Alvarado is Offering to get
labor. They are hard up for laborers
to work in the henequen fields CT Yuca-
'dil anu 50 ALit SONSlllST ndS 1ON EENlstA
in the American papers that iaborers
can earn from s6 to IS 4 day in gold by
working there and the government will
pay their transportation down there. He
wants $4,000 OF them, too. Nobody need
be out OF a Job with offers like that open.
Already about 1000 have taken up the
ofrer and been shipped from New Or
leans to Progreso.
When new labor unions are organized
IN Yucatan they present statements OF
their personnel and intentions TO the
state government. which. after due in
vestigation as to their bona fdes, issues
public notice that such organizations are
entitled to full recognition snd cons Iera-
tion by the authorities and the public. It
is by such means as this that Alvarado
is solving the labor situation. More than
that. l notice that the Merida news
papers give fun reports Of the work of
the arbitration commission. demon
strating that the complaints between en-
ployers and employees are gone into fully
and every effort made to arrive at the
facts and to award Just decisions
So Il seems that they are doing other
things in Mexico besides raiding ranches
and shooting each other