ters while in some of the more remote districts almost nothing has been done. Distribution has been hampered on the one hand by the estate owners who particularly object to payment in government bonds and on the other by the poverty and ignorance of many of the peons. Soto y Gama, who is now leader of the national agrarian party, is quoted as recently saying "only the ejido can confront the proprietor with an economic fortress against the battering ram erected to destroy it."[1] The hope is thus to gradually educate the peons in better methods of agriculture, to supply them with machinery and means of irrigation, and by rendering them more independent, raise the price of farm labor, force the owners to use more efficient methods and increase production. In September, 1924, Obregon reported that during his administration he had returned to the villages in absolute or provisional possession between two and three million acres. In August, 1925, it was announced that one-third of the proposed return of land to the villages had been accomplished. Since 1915, 12 million acres had been given.[2] Several hundred co-operative societies have also been granted land. Various laws, the latest the homestead law promulgated in 1926, provide for individual acquisition of land, by residence and cultivation, and for renting of land with payment of a small per cent of the crop. In general, however, most of the rural population remain landless as before the revolution.[3]
The two chief means that have been used to control exploitation of mineral resources are tax or rental on oil lands and tax on oil exports. This
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