AGRARIANISM IN MEXICO 83 



constitution provided that when these estates, or 

 parts of them, are disposed of for small farms, the 

 owner is given land bonds which mature in twenty 

 years as compensation. The value of the land is de- 

 termined by the tax rendition plus an addition of 

 ten per cent. 



This was only the beginning of a program of land 

 distribution and utilization which contemplated 

 many other reforms. "When the work is com- 

 pleted," says Professor E. A. Ross, "it will take rank 

 as one of the giant agrarian adjustments of history. 

 In scope the land redistributions in ancient Greece, 

 the work of the land commission of Tiberius 

 Gracchus, or that of the Irish Land Commission are 

 hardly to be compared with it. For parallel, one 

 must look to the achievements of the Russian com- 

 mission which, in 1861, provided with land the 

 twenty-four million emancipated serfs." 5 



The Obregon government made definite progress 

 toward social democracy and racial and regional 

 autonomy. In this regard it marked a hopeful de- 

 parture in Mexican political history. 



Carleton Beals, in an interesting review of the 

 Obregon regime in the Survey Graphic? says : "The 

 brightest feature is found in the widening of the 

 bases of social control, the respect for popular 

 organization, the sincere understanding of the forces 

 that are emerging from indigenous Mexico, which 



6 The Social Revolution in Mexico (1923), Chap. VII, p. 86. 

 * See special edition on Mexico, issue of May, 1924. 



