86 THE GREEN RISING 



of Chicago, an authority on Mexican history, as 

 follows: "Mexico's stability and prosperity in the 

 future may depend largely upon the creation of 

 numerous small, independent landowners. She 

 possesses arable land in limited quantity, about one- 

 fourth of her area being of this description. Ameri- 

 cans and other foreigners own millions of acres of 

 this land. If we insist upon and secure the right of 

 permanently retaining our holdings, other foreigners 

 will obtain the same right under the most-favored- 

 nation principle. Mexican land-holders will then be 

 left in an inferior position. This will lead either to 

 revolution or to the defeat of the whole agrarian 

 program of the Mexican Government, and possibly 

 to both." 8 This is a clear statement of Mexico's 

 present situation. 



But opponents claim that the new "Ownership 

 and Property" and "Petroleum" laws of Mexico 

 amount to confiscation of private property of foreign 

 owners of Mexican lands. This contention has been 

 the basis of an exchange of several diplomatic com- 

 munications between the governments of the United 

 States and Mexico. That Secretary of State Kellogg 

 holds to the theory of confiscation is indicated from 

 the following statement contained in a communica- 

 tion to the Mexican Government in June, 1925 : "A 

 great deal of property of Americans has been taken 

 under or in violation of the agrarian laws for which 

 no compensation has been made and other properties 



1 See Current History, Vol. 24, No. 3, for June, 1926. 



