Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/73

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 "Commercial stock companies shall not acquire, hold, or administer rural property. Companies of this nature which may be organized to develop any manufacturing, mining, petroleum, or other industry, excepting only agricultural industries, may acquire, hold, or administer land only in an area absolutely necessary for their establishments or adequate to serve the purposes indicated, which the executive of the union, or of the respective states, in each case, shall determine."

Almost all large real estate holdings of foreigners in Mexico in the form of ranches, coffee and rubber plantations, and great projects for the irrigation of arid lands were held by corporations regularly organized under the laws as they had existed under the constitution of 1857. It will be noted that by the terms of the foregoing provision it is made impossible for any corporation to hold any rural or agricultural property, and, as a result, under a strict construction of this provision, many great properties belonging to foreigners, and particularly to Americans, are to-day without legal ownership.

Furthermore, so far as manufacturing, mining, petroleum, and other industries of that nature are concerned, the executives of the nation and of the respective states are given the arbitrary authority to determine what extent of lands are "absolutely necessary" to carry on their business and to divest them of all other lands. No appeal