File No. 812.00/16818.
Mr. Parker, representing American interests in Mexico, to the Secretary of State.
158. Department’s 129, November 11, 4 p.m. Without reliable information relative Zapata Convention. Has undoubtedly split, part north and part south. Food conditions Mexico City temporarily improved but apprehension is felt new crop cereal will be exhausted soon throughout Republic. Many confiscations of houses. We have reason to believe friction exists between Gonzales and Obregon. Gonzales gone north to confer with Carranza. Currency situation continues to cause uneasiness. Mining tax decrees are a source of great criticism. The two most important features of criticism are that mining taxes are payable in Mexican gold worth some seven times the value of paper currency of forcible circulation and the injustice of increasing taxation on a business which for the most part [Page 777] is receiving entirely inadequate protection or no protection and therefore unable produce revenue. Equitable arrangement according to persons interested would appear to be entire exemption from taxes until protection afforded. Incoming mail arriving promptly. Railroad traffic very unsatisfactory. Reliable informant states a merchant paid twenty-two thousand pesos in freight and gratifications to move two cars of merchandise from San Luis Potosi to Mexico City in fourteen days.