Article XXVI: In conformity with Article V of the Decree of January 6, 1915, and of Article I of this Ordinance, the Special Executive Committees shall depend upon the Local Agrarian Commissions of the Federal entities; the latter shall obey the orders of the Executive of the Union issued through the National Agrarian Commission under penalty of dismissal from service in case of disobedience, said penalty to be imposed by the governor of the State or Territory of the jurisdiction concerned; they shall be so removed by administrative act and without later recourse.

Article XXVII: The documentation (expedientes) concerning dotation or restitution of lands to the towns shall be acted upon by the Local Agrarian Commissions and decided upon provisionally by the governors within a period of five months, which shall not be extendable. The Special Executive Committees shall give provisional possession within the month following a resolution providing therefor. The contravention of the terms indicated is a cause of responsibility which shall be made effective in accord with the provisions of Article VII of the decree above cited, dated November 22, 1921, without prejudice to the case in that, the time indicated to the governors within which they must render their decisions having passed, the delegate of the National Agrarian Commission within the territory concerned shall take up the documentation drawn up by the Local Commission and send it to the National Commission in order that the latter body may consult concerning the final solution with the President of the Republic through the Secretary of Agriculture and Fomento.

Article XXVIII: To every set of documents (expediente) concerning restitution or dotation of ejidos shall be added for consideration all the petitions and proofs which may be offered by the proprietors affected, and once the corresponding measures have been taken they shall be notified that they have a period of thirty days within which to present their allegations as to what befits their rights.

TRANSITORY

Article I: Sets of documents (expedientes) concerning dotation and restitution of ejidos which have not been closed by definitive or provisional resolution and which may be initiated in future under petitions by nuclei of population which have the right thereto in conformity with the law shall conform with the provisions of this Ordinance.

Article II: The present Ordinance shall begin to have effect from the day of its promulgation and all regulations opposing it are repealed, and the Agrarian Commissions shall be granted a period of twenty days counting also from the date of the promulgation of this Decree to organize themselves in conformity with the precepts thereof. Wherefore I order that the foregoing be printed, published, circulated, and given the proper observance.

Given in the palace of the Executive Power of the Union on the tenth day of April, 1922.

A. OBREGON,

Sub-secretary in Charge of the Office of Agriculture
and Fomento, F. Dozal. Rubric.

To Citizen General Plutarco Elías Calles,
Secretary of State and of the Office of Gobernación,

Present.

I therefore communicate the foregoing to you for publication and other proper effects.

Effective Suffrage, No Reëlection.

Mexico, April 17, 1922. The Secretary of State and Office of Gobernación, P. Elías Calles. Rubric.

To Citizen

The adherence of the present government to the program contained in the foregoing legislation has aroused opposition by all. large landholders, foreign and Mexican. Some of the chief objections are that the expropriations are arbitrary, giving little opportunity for legal recourse to owners, that they have no assurance of adequate compensation although the Constitution makes provision for it, and although the government proposes ultimately to pay for lands in six per cent bonds of national indebtedness. Mexican landowners have organized a syndicate to protect their rights; this has not materially lessened the agrarian activity. Foreign landowners have entered suits of amparo against agrarian executive officers, which are yet pending. Representations to foreign governments have not yet been adjusted. Recognition by foreign powers is delayed because of the alleged confiscatory character of land expropriations. In some cases foreigners have been urged by their consular representatives to protest all alienations of their property taken under the existing legislation, and even the pronounced revolutionists are not completely unanimous concerning the wisdom of the program.

On the practical side, rather than the legal, it is urged by objectors that the Indians do not want lands unless incited to covet them by so called intellectuals; that they do not cultivate them. effectively when they obtain them, and that agricultural production has declined because of the agrarian program. Without going extensively into discussion of this phase of the problem, it may be asserted without hesitancy that the question is a dual one, going back to the necessity that the Indian population be raised to a condition of free labor by some means. Most of them are essentially agricultural by instinct, needing encouragement, training, and financial assistance before they can attain to independence in food. production. On the other hand, legal owners of vested rights are entitled to equitable compensation in case of alienation of lands. Their essential difficulties lie in many aspects of the situation, including those of adequate and efficient labor supply, now notably lacking, rural credits, irrigation development, and modern methods of cultivation. Space to deal effectively with these problems is inadequate here.

Up to September, 1922, dotations and restitutions of ejidos officially reported to the public press of Mexico had been made in favor of five hundred and twenty towns since General Obregón assumed the presidency. Lands totaling 886,156 hectares had been alienated in favor of 119,649 citizens of the Republic, 949 subdivisions having been effected. Only a small proportion of dotations had been made from the public lands.