Evening star., 1926-11-25

ACTIVITIES behind the open opposition
or the Catholic foreign clergy.
PeOn bandits have ranged at will
over the country and taken possession
OF what land they desired. When that
chanced to be owned by foreigners. the
foreign demand for compensation has
been answered by the Mexican mill
tary oustlng the poems, but lawful"
seizures OF land have been made under
government sanction, with the prom
lSe that the owners would be dulv
compensated with government bonds.
Not one bond has ever been fssued
and the pretense for the DELAY is that
the land has not yet been appraised.
The bonds have no market value.
hence the whole proceeding Is held to
be confscatory. Usually only part
OF the land of large estate is thus
taken. but the result is that the own
ers Of the great haciendas have ceased
TO cultivate the rest of their holdings.
under fear that whatever crops they
sow will be confiscated upon maturity.
The peons-ignorant, unorganized,
without farm tools or capital-have
not been able to cultivate the land
they have thus acquired Hence,
while the rightful owners have been
robbed, the new holders have not bene.
hted. Mexico is demoralized, as was
Russia under similar communistic
plundering.
The first confiscation by the gov.
ernment for the sale to poems was
made while crops were maturing on
the land taken. The poems, there
fore, got crops as we'll as land. and
that year they were "in clover" After
that year, the land has lain fallow
hVy I,n
retained by the great holders. for the
poems could not cultivate 1t, and the
hacendados dared not. So production
ceased. Land owners, unable to keep
up their taxes, have suffered further
losses on that account.
Commerce has been paralyzed by
the church boycott of merchandise.
That boycott Is reported through our
official channels as proving far more
effective than Mexican propagandists
confess.
Not even the Mexican government
has prof1ted by it's commission, for,
with the farm land idle and unproduc-
, tive, Mexico ceases to maintain a
favorable trade balance in exports
over imports. Formerly, she exported
coffee, bananas and other food prod
needed for home consumption. Now
the coffee plantations are run down
no new coffee trees are planted and
the productive life Of @ coffee tree is
only four or five years. Coffee hacen-
dados dare not invest in new trees, for
ownership is too unsafe. The result
/ Is that Mexican exports of coffee
cease.
Petroleum wells are becoming ex-
hausted. and although that does not
mean that the petroleum resources Of
Mexico are run out, it does mean that
American operators will put no money
into sinking new wells. The same ap-
plies to metals-silver, copper, etc.
So metal exports are shrunken. Corn
must now be imported from the
United States; cattle raising ceases
to be profitable.
The loss on exports of metals and
cattle combined, for the first six
months Of 1926. compared with the
first half Of 1925. amounts to 142, ,000,-
900 pesos-about s70,000,000 gold
Total decline in exports for the first
half of 1926, compared with 1925,
amounts to 873.230,000 pesos-over
s400 10000 gold. To this loss must be
added the invisible" loss in steamship
traffic, bank charges, insurance etc.
The total loss in trade balance COW
ers the range from 172.000,0O0 pesos
favorable balance, plus $4,000. 900
pesos unfavorable balance-a total
shrinkage in the balance of 267, ,00O, 900
pesos-about $133 900 900 gold, in the
first six months of 1925.
According to official figures from
the National Bank Of Mexico, the gov
ernment revenues for the first six
months of 1926 amounted to only
159, zoe. 900 pesos, as contrasted with
165, 100, 900 in the corresponding period
of 1925, and this 100000 peso loss is
in spite of a new source of revenue
an income tax which brought receipts
Of 13,436,229 pesos-new since April,
1928.