Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/172

154 brought into the country. The number reported in 1892 was only 10,985, and the later years for which statistics are not available have brought no real improvement.

It is not possible to state exactly to what degree large land holdings came to prevail in Mexico before the revolution. No public record shows the development in a satisfactory way and discussions by private writers are almost without exception propagandist. That there were many enormous holdings and that they were an abuse, is beyond question. A few examples may be cited. Before the revolution Luis Terrazas was credited with holdings in Chihuahua of a larger area than the sovereign state of Costa Rica; other large properties were those of José Escandon in Zacatecas, Iñigo Noriega in Mexico, Garcia Pimentel in Morelos, Juventino Ramirez in Puebla, and the extensive possessions of the Madero family in Coahuila. In the sparsely populated Lower California there are some enormous extents of territory held by land companies. Three companies it is asserted acquired 93,798 square kilometers, an area larger than Ireland. Luis Haller and Company owned 53,950 square kilometers; the California and Mexican Land Company, Ltd., 24,883; and Flores and Company, 14,965. It is asserted that the 18 largest land companies had an average possession half as great as Portugal and that 11,000 haciendas comprised 880,000 square kilometers or 44 per cent of the total area of the republic. The state of Morelos is alleged to have