The confiscation of the railway properties by the Mexican government under Carranza is one of the most astonishing and illuminating pages in the whole story of Carranza’s campaign against capital and the foreigners. But although it began with him, it apparently has continued into the rule of his successors--for they seem a part of the revolution of which he was and still is the dominating, sinister genius. Under the terms of the merger of 1907, the Mexican government was given the voting power--but not the title to--50 per cent of the stock of the company, under certain definite conditions laid down by the bondholders. This 50 per cent interest represented no capital invested, nor was it a recognition of any debt which the railways might have imagined they owed the government. It was given outright in consideration of one thing, the guaranteeing by the Mexican government of a return of 4 per cent interest on the bonds of the merged lines. To the merger the government contributed nothing of tangible value--save one short line of railway worth about $5,000. Its permission was needed, perhaps, for the transfer of the railway concessions to the merger, but this would probably have been given without question had it been asked alone. The interests back of the merger believed that the Mexican government guarantee of the interest on the bonds was worth the gift of the voting right of half the common stock--and on this understanding alone it was given. The taking over of the physical property by the Mexican government followed the American occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914, and shortly afterwards Carranza made his claim official, on the ground of the 50 per cent voting right! On the basis of this right alone the Mexican government to-day holds control of the National Railways of Mexico, a right once given on the solemn guarantee of the interest on the bonds--which has not been paid for eight years--and with the recognized provision that the bondholders should name the president of the lines, and various officials and members of the board--and to-day there is not one official who is not a creature of the government which happens to be in power in Mexico!