structed and operated its factories, opened up its oil wells, introduced modern machinery and implements, and have given employment to practically all the native labour in the country, except that engaged at from 1 5 to 50 cents a day on the plantations, farms, or ranches.
The point of present interest is that these large foreign investments, and their influence in developing natural resources and affording a livelihood to all who were willing to work, are paraded as one of the fundamental grievances of the Carrancistas to redress which they have confiscated all the property that could be converted into cash without too much effort and have greatly damaged or destroyed substantially all the rest. Conscious that such proceedings are not considered exactly good form in the countries whence the investments came, the Carrancistas have expended a good deal of ingenuity in endeavouring to justify, or at least to excuse, their peculiar ideas regarding the rights of property. Or it may be that these endeavours have been prompted less by prickings of conscience than by a fear that if the whole truth were known there might be some inconvenient insistence upon restitution and protection for whatever property is left in accessible shape and for such foreigners as still survive.
The Carrancistas have been particularly zealous in their efforts to win American sympathy. To
