Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/87

Rh gives to each state and territory the right to fix the maximum area of land which any one individual or corporation may own and to compel the owner to subdivide the remainder and offer it for sale at a price to be fixed by the government or, in default of such action on the part of the owner, gives the state the authority to fix the price at which it will take over the land and compel the owner to accept bonds of the state in payment therefor, which would mean absolute confiscation.

We have seen how completely the Carranza government has violated the pledge of its diplomatic representative, Mr. Arredondo, that "the laws of record which guarantee individual freedom of worship 'according to everyone's conscience shall be strictly observed."

One of the worst features of the Carranza constitution is that, not having been enacted by a constitutional convention representing either all of the national territory or all the people of the nation, it will be a perpetual and very just incitement to revolution on the ground that it was not adopted by and does not represent the will of the Mexican people. Indeed, that objection has already been urged by all the opposing factions now in arms against the Carranza government as constituting a ground for their revolutionary activities.

The story of the violated pledges made to this