Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/80

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64
MEXICO'S DILEMMA

ico City, Pachuca, El Oro and other cities. The Light and Power Company and the Tramways Company are operated as distinct corporations.

Sometime in 1914 the Carranza forces "intervened" and took over the tramways without paying the investors interest or compensation. For over two years the power company furnished the electricity to run the cars free of charge. This was confiscated property, pure and simple.

President Carranza saw that some day the tramways would have to be returned to the owners. He was informed that if they were returned in their present condition the company might claim millions of dollars worth of damages. So the President ousted his former grafting "interventor" and appointed a young engineer, Señor Francisco Cravioto, as director on behalf of the government, responsible to Mr. Carranza alone. Since Señor Cravioto has been in office he has paid instalments on the electric power bills amounting, up to midsummer 1917, to $40,000 a month, and he has turned over a few hundred thousand pesos to pay interest on the foreign bonds out of many millions owing. Foreigners in Mexico City to-day look forward to the time when the tramways will be returned to the owners and the old debts adjusted.

This is pointed out by the most optimistic foreigners as an example of what treatment foreign business interests may expect from the Carranza