Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/174

158 of the government to protect its workmen from raids by the Yaqui Indians and that it stood ready at all times to carry out its agreement as soon as conditions permitted, it was met with a threat that its right to the waters of the Yaqui River would be forfeited and that innumerable smaller rights to these waters would be issued so that each man or small group of men could provide their own system of irrigation.

Of course, it would be utterly impossible to irrigate adequately and economically so great an area of land except by one system under single management, requiring many millions of dollars. With this investment made, as originally planned, water would be delivered for irrigating this wonderfully rich territory at a very low cost. The Mexican Government has no money to carry out the plan and no prospects of ever securing any. Yet, because the company will not submit to a robbery which would bankrupt it in a short time, this official of the national government proposes to destroy an enterprise that would produce hundreds of millions of value where nothing exists to-day. It would also furnish employment to thousands of Mexican labourers and would result in building up a great property subject to taxation.

This is one example of the way many enterprises of like character are being destroyed by the Carranza government as a result of a short-sighted