Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/77

Rh Thus, machinery has been prepared by which the amount of real property owned by any individual or corporation may be limited and the owner may be forced to accept for all excess real_estate which he owns prices fixed by the State, in State Bonds, which at the present time would certainly not be worth the paper on which they were printed.

The new constitution has proved so successful as an instrumentality for robbery and spoliation that its makers and administrators have been encouraged to amend it so as to extend very greatly its usefulness for acquiring without compensation the property of individuals and corporations. To that end, President Carranza, on December 14, 1918, submitted to the Mexican Congress a proposed amendment to the confiscatory Article 27 of the constitution heretofore referred to. A part of the amendment provides that paragraph 3 of Article 27, as amended, shall read as follows:

 "The nation shall have at all times the right to impose upon private property such limitations as the public interest may demand, as well as the right to regulate the development of such natural resources as are susceptible of appropriation, in order to conserve them and equitably to distribute the public wealth. Establishments or concerns of private ownership, having a general interest, whether belonging to single individuals or to associations or persons, shall not be closed