Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/168

152 attention because it happened to concern residents of Los Angeles with whom I am very well acquainted. These men were developing a large rubber and coffee plantation in Mexico. They purchased the land, which was unimproved jungle, from private owners at a good price. Had the plans of the investors been carried out, a great property worth millions of dollars, subject to taxation, would have been created. They happened to have as a manager a German whose nationality was attested by a distinctly Teutonic name. This man had shown himself to be trustworthy, and, when it became evident that the powers in Mexico had great respect for German rights and none whatever for those of citizens of the United States, the owners of this great property placed it in the name of their German manager. Some time ago they showed me a letter from this manager, in which, after telling that all the goods in the store maintained on the property had been taken by a company of soldiers from military headquarters near by, he continued:

 "I am glad to inform you that we were able to recover most of the goods taken away from us by the government to the capital. The governor, hearing they belonged to us, gave order for their release and what was left was immediately returned to us. When we think of the fact that other people have lost their entire stock and shipments, we may