File No. 812.512/556.
Vice Consul Bevan to
the Secretary of State.
No. 1263.]
American Consulate,
Tampico,
February 21, 1915.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a
copy of the land manifestation decree of General Carranza, and its
English translation, which was issued on the 19th of September, 1914.
Little attention was paid to this decree at the time. It was not
officially published in Tampico until November 11, 1914. On the same day
a decree was issued by Raul Garate, Acting Governor of the State of
Tamaulipas, extending the time in which to present the manifestations to
which Article 5 of the decree refers, until the 31st of December,
1914.
On account of the abnormal conditions existing throughout the State,
General Luis Caballero, Governor of the State of Tamaulipas, issued
another decree on the 28th day of December extending the time sixty days
longer. This will make the time of expiration February
[Page 883]
28, 1915. A number of foreigners desiring
to comply with the requirements of this decree have applied at the
Municipal Treasury where the special forms for manifestation were to be
obtained and were told by the officials that the forms were not yet
printed. Several people applied at this office four or five times with
the same result. They were told, however, that they need not worry as
the time would undoubtedly be again extended. On February 19 a notice
was published in the Tampico daily paper advising that the Municipal
Treasury had received a supply of the forms for manifestation of
property, and that they were on sale at the said office.
As this is the only form on which the manifestation can be made, it was,
up to the 19th of February, impossible for any one to comply with the
decree. On the morning of the 19th, after the notification that the
forms were on sale, I sent to the office for copies and was advised that
only forms 1 and 2 were ready, and that form 3 could be obtained the
following day. This would give the property holders barely eight days in
which to make the manifestation, notwithstanding the fact that time for
making the same was extended from September 19 until February 28, 1915.
However, the time will most likely be again extended.
According to article 10 of the decree, those who do not make their
manifestations within the term stipulated will be fined 5 per cent, and
will be subject to the valuation put on their property by the Assessment
Committee, which committee according to article 6 retains the right to
purchase the property at their own figure. This amounts to confiscation
pure and simple.
A number of the oil companies that own land in fee are deeply concerned
as to the action of the Government in regard to this decree. The
unproven oil land which was purchased years ago for insignificant
amounts, on which taxes have been paid in proportion to the agricultural
value up to the present time, may be valueless or worth millions of
dollars. It is impossible to estimate the value of such land until wells
have been drilled. This is the question that confronts the oil men. If
they place a valuation too low, they stand the chance of expropriation
by the Government; on the other hand if they fix a high valuation they
will have to pay taxes in proportion.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure 1—Translation.]
[Untitled]
I, Venustiano Carranza, First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army, in
charge of the Executive Power of the Union, by virtue of the powers
conferred upon me in accordance with the Plan of Guadalupe, and
considering that it is of the utmost importance to reorganize the
Tax List in the whole Republic, in order that the Governments of the
States as well as the General Government may know exactly the true
wealth of the country and so may rationally and equitably distribute
the taxes on the tax-payers, have thought fit to issue the following
decree:
- Article 1. In order to form the Tax Office of the
Republic, there shall be established in each district of the
States of the Republic a committee which shall be called
“Assessment Committee” the purpose of which will be to
register the real estate, fix its Value and the amount of
the capital invested.
- Article 2. The aforementioned Committee shall be composed
of the Tax Collector, the Municipal Treasurer and three
tax-paying citizens, who shall be chosen by the first
political authority in each district.
- Article 3. The Committee shall be organized within eight
days after the publication of this law and shall proceed at
once to elect among its members a President and two
Secretaries; it being permitted to act when three of the
members are present, in case the others are absent.
- Article 4. After the Assessment Committee has been
installed, it shall at once publish this fact in order to
notify the inhabitants of the district, by means of the
press and notices fixed on the walls along the streets,
making this distribution of notices as liberal as possible,
setting forth therein the place where the Committee meets
and the hours in which the daily sessions take place, in
order to receive and dispatch the matters they are to handle
according to this law.
- Article 5. Every proprietor or possessor of an usufruct,
possessor or administrator of capital existing in the
Republic, and invested in rural, urban and movable
(live-stock) property, and mercantile, industrial, and
manufacturing-business, is obligated to present before the
Assessment Committee of the district in which said property
is located a detailed statement of all of the property, in
conformity with the form, copy of which is printed at the
end of this law, within a term not to exceed one
month.
- Article 6. The statements in question must set forth the
location and size of the rural and urban properties, and
with regard to the urban properties, the number of rooms and
the material they are composed of. They must also state, in
each case, the value of each one of the properties or
businesses which constitute the capital of the manifestant;
in the understanding that the Government shall have the
right, in case of expropriation for the sake of public
service, to pay to the interested parties as indemnity the
value which is definitely fixed in the Tax List.
- Article 7. Each statement shall be signed by the
proprietor or his legal representative, setting forth in
same the address of his residence.
- Article 8. The presented statements shall be examined
separately, the decision thereon being noted on the edge of
the same, whether they be approved in full, whether they be
reformed or whether any properties which might have been
omitted be added. The decision taken in each case shall be
authorized by the president and the secretaries of the
Committee.
- Article 9. The Assessment Committees shall obtain from the
respective Tax Offices and the district treasuries the data
which they may judge necessary for the prompt discharge of
their duties, and they must listen to and take into
consideration the denunciations which may be presented to
them regarding the low assessment of properties and
capitals.
- Article 10. The tax-payers who do not present their
statements within the term stipulated in Article 5, shall be
fined five per cent of the value of the property they keep
secret; they shall be subject to the valuation of their
property to be made by the Assessment Committee, and to the
provisions of Article 6.
- Article 11. After the Assessment Committee has finished
its work, for the consummation of which it will have sixty
days, it shall at once make up a list in duplicate
containing the register of the capital and property revised
by it, determining the value in each case. A copy of said
list shall be posted in plain view of everybody outside of
the building where its work is carried on, for the
information of the interested parties, and the Committee
shall retain the duplicate.
- Article 12. The tax-payers who believe themselves injured
through the assessment made by the Committee according to
the foregoing articles, can make, within fifteen days
following the publication of the list mentioned in the
foregoing article, a complaint in writing, so that the
Committee may make a just decision.
- Article 13. There shall also be formed a Board of
Equalization in the capital of each one of the States, to
which the Assessment Committees must remit the result of
their work, and the principal object of which shall be to
definitely decide the complaints or claims of the tax-payers
regarding the assessment of their properties or
capital.
- Article 14. The Board of Equalization shall be composed of
the Governor of the State, the Treasurer, and three members
who shall be selected by the first named.
- Article 15. When finishing this work, the Board of
Equalization shall form three lists of the properties
definitely revised, of which they shall retain one,
[Page 885]
remitting another
to the General Treasury of the State with all of the papers,
and the third to the Department of Treasury.
- Article 16. The Governments of the States shall have as
basis the assessments made in accordance with this law in
order to fix the taxes of the State and of the
District.
Done at the National Palace, Mexico, September 19,
1914.
V. Careanza.
[Inclosure 2.]
[Untitled]
November 11, 1914
[This is a decree, dated November 11, 1914, by Acting Governor Raul
Garate of the State of Tamaulipas, promulgating a decree by
Carranza, dated October 27, 1914, extending to December 31, 1914,
the term in which to file the statements required by Article 5 of
the Decree of September 19, 1914 (inclosure 1)].
[Inclosure 3.]
[Untitled]
December 28, 1914
[This is a decree by Governor Luis Caballero of the State of
Tamaulipas, dated December 28, 1914, providing that the term for
filing tax statements required by Article 5 of the Decree of
September 19, 1914 (inclosure 1), be extended “for sixty days,”
without specifying the date from which the sixty days is to run. It
makes no reference to the Decree of November 11 by the Acting
Governor (inclosure 2), extending the Decree of September 19 to
December 31.]
