Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, August 12, 1921 Page: 1 of 10
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1
Mmtbts
VOLUME VIII
MERCEDES, HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1821
NUMBER m
STATE WATER BOARD
GIVES DECISION
Mass Meetings Are Called by Farm-
ers—Consensus of Opinion Points
to Appeal to the Courts
PROMINENT RESIDENT
OF LA FERIA DEAD
The report of the State Board of
Water Engineers in, the case styled
American Rio Grande Land & Irriga-
tion Company vs. F. G. Karle, et al.,
more commonly known as the Mer-
cedes Water Rate case, has been re-
ceived m-Mercedes from the office of
the board at Austin.
The decision of the Board values
the physical properties of the Ameri-
can company at $2,946,498.41. The
rate to be paid by property owners
for water for irrigating purposes was
derived by figuring 6 per cent inter-
est, amortization, maintenance and
operation charges on that sum, mak-
ing a revenue necessary for the prof-
itable operation of the company of
$505,172.85.
To enable the company to earn this
sum, the Board announced that the
city of Mercedes should pay to the
American company the sum of
$1,825 for water used by the city
and its inhabitants. The yearly rate
in the past has been $720.
For irrigation purposes a flat rate
of $4.60 per acre is set down by the
Board, to be paid by all lands subject
to irrigation, whether irrigated or not.
This is to be paid quarterly, the first
of each January, April, July and Oc-
tober.
This rate is retroactive to January
1, 1921, and three-fourths of the sum
due this year is to be paid the 15th
of August, the remaining fourth the
'first of October, less whatever pay-
ments have been already made.
In addition to the flat rate there is
determined a rate of $2 per acre per
irrigation, payable in advance at* the
time of making application for water.
The Board recommends that a reas-
onable and accurate rate of measuring
the water used be determined, in
which case the consumer is to be
charged at the rate of $1.08 for the
first acre inch, and an additional sum
for each additional inch used.
The full text of the decision will be
found on page 8 of this issue of The
Tribune.
Comment on the decision varies,
but the opinion prevails that the
farmers on the system are dissatis-
fied witfe the rates as handed down,
and will take the matter to the courts
for final adudication.
The Water Users’ committee ap-
pointed by the farmers’ organization
to handle the matter, have issued a
statement calling for mass meetings
at the Mercedes school auditorium
Tuesday night, August 16; at the
Weslaco Community House Wednes-
day night, August 17; at Los Indos
school house Thursday night, the
18th, and at the Carlson school house
Friday night, the 19th. At these
meetings the rates will be discussed
and a vote taken as to whether or not
an appeal from the decision shall be
made. »
The committee states that the at-
torneys for the Water Users are of
the opinion that there are ample
grounds for the appeal from the de-
cision and that necessary bond has
been arranged. The injunction for-
bidding their application still stands,
and the old rates are in force until
this has been dissolved by the court.
The legality of the decision rendering
the rates retroactive to January 1 is
alfeo questioned by the attorneys.
The committee further claims that
lands owned by the farmers, but oc-
cupied by the canals of the company
have been used in determining the
valuatiobkof the company’s properties,
forcing the farmers to pay 6' per cent
interest on $241,900 to the company in
rates on their own personal property.
They further claim that the company
will not, under the decision, pay the
flat rate upon all the lands owqed by
them, as was agreed at the hearing
held in Mercedes, they paying the
rate only on the lands owned by them
to which the canals have been com-
pleted.
The committee has collected in
round numbers over $8,000 and have
hand $2,500 in notes. They have
^illected from 820 landowners out of
ibout 17Q0 on this system. It is
estimated Aaat about half of the own-
(Continued on page ten)
W. II. Lane, 68 years old, died of
heart failure at 9 o’clock Wednesday
morning while on his way to his cot-
ton field. Arrangements have been
made to convey the body to Morrill,
Neb., his former home, where the fun-
eral will be held.
Besides his widow Mr. Lane is sur-
vived by three sons and two daugh-
ters, Barton Lane and Kent Lane, of
Morrill, Noble Lane of Sheridan, Wy-
oming,, Mrs. Neva Adams of La Feria,
and Mrs. Gertrude Dewey of Neder-
land, Colorado.
Mr. Lane came to La Feria eight
years ago, and bought property here.
His place was noted as one of the
show places of the Valley, and his
orchard was full of all kinds of cit-
rus trees.
HEALTH OFFICER
WILL ENFORCE LAW
Dr. Buck Announces Rigid Inspection
of Ail Eating Places in City; Em-
ployes Must Have Certificates
Feeling that sufficient time and
warning has been given by the health
authorities to the various restaurants
and eating places in the city of Mer-
cedes to enable them to fully comply
with all the provisions of the law
regulating such places, Dr. C. B. Buck,
city health officer, announces that be-
ginning with next week the law will
be strictly enforced by -his depart-
ment.
He will make an inspection tour of
the city to ascertain whether or not
all employes and persons engaged in
the handling of foods are provided
with a health certificate, as the re-
cently enacted law demands. The
proprietors of all eating houses where
persons are found not so equipped
will be prosecuted.
Attention will also be paid to the
sanitary conditions prevailing at the
various establishments visited.
The laws governing the conduct of
eating houses were published in full
in the July 1st issue of The Tribune,
.and provide for a penalty of not less
than $5 nor more than $100 for failure
to observe their provisions. A second
offense is penalized at not less than
$25 nor more than $200.
Health certificate blanks may be
obtained by interested parties at The
Tribune office.
SGHOOLBGARD
DEFERSJVERYTHING
Elects Teachers, But Sidewalks, Sci-
entific Department and Painting
Must Bait on More Money
NEW GULF COAST COUNTY
WILL SOON BE ON THE MAP
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LOWER RIO GRANDE VALLEY
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THE COW, SOW AND HEN
CAMPAIGN AND TOUR
What is rather an off season in
political circles is being somewjmt
enlivened locally by the approaching
county election in the new county of
Willacy, which has been called by
the governor for Saturday August 13.
The new county was formed at the
last regular session of the legislature
from parts of the old county of Wil-
lacy, and of Cameron and Hidalgo
counties. The act which created, the
new county of Willacy changed the
name of the old county of Willacy
to Kenedy. Raymondville has been
designated the county seat of Willacy
county. By act of the legislature the
new county has been granted some
$60,000 of 1921 taxes, the major por-
tion of which would have gone to
Cameron county.
The coming election is of especial
interest, due to the fact that the Re-
publican party has entered into the
politics of Willacy county right from
the start and will present a full tick-
et to the voters. The Democrats are,
of course, in the field and confident
of a full party victory at the polls,
though not underestimating the
strength of the opposition. v
S. L. Gill of Raymondville is the
chairman of the Board of Comrnis
sioners created by the legislature for
the formation of the county, and R.
W. Huff, secretary. ' The commis-
sioners have given notice that all
candidates for county and precinct
offices must have their applications
in the hands of the commission on
or before August 1.
Caameron county is the biggest con-
tributor to the acreage of Willacy
county. Kenedy county loses but a
little' strip, as does Hidalgo. How
little this county loses may be seen
by reference to the accompanying cut.
The part lost by Hidalgo county is
that, portion of Willacy county lying
west of a continuation of the Hidal-
go-Cameron county line. It amounts
to about one hundred square miles.
Only ten voters resided in this strip,
so Hidalgo’s voting strength is not
impaired. When the formation of the
new county was first under contem-
plation one of the plans was to take
from Hidalgo county that portion of
the county lying east of the Edin-
burg-^rooks county road, which
wouhK have been a serious loss to
Hidalgo. The proposition was de-
feated upon the representations made
to the legislature by Hidalgo county
officials,
A postponed meeting of the Trus-
tees of the Mercedes Independent,
School District met Thursday night
at the old school house. Mr. Schrank
appeared before the board in the in-
terest of the property owners in his
section, who wanted to know if the
Boar!! intended to put down side-
walks at this time. Mr. Schrank
stated that if the Board would hWe
sidewalks put in that the property
owners would be glad to build walks
also, but that without walks along
the school property, they did not feel
called upon to do so at this time.
The Board after discussion stated
that while they wou4d like very much
to have the walks put in immedi-
ately, that they did not feel that the
school finances warranted that ex-
penditure at this time, as the col-
lection of back taxes was such an
uncertain element, but that as soon
as the money was available, they
REPURLICANS LOSE
MANDAMUS SUIT
The, mandamus proceedings insti-
tuted by the Republican party of Wil-
lacy county to force the Board of
Commissioners to place the names of
the party’s candidates on the ticket
as a party have been withdrawn. Dis-
trict Judge Hopkins of Corpus Christi
ruled that there could be no Republi-
can party of Willacy -county until
there was a county. The county will
not be officially organized until its
officers have been duly elected and
qualified for office. As a result of
the withdrawal the candidates have
petitioned individually that tjieir
names go on the ballots.
NEW RURAL ROUTE
STARTSQCTOBER1
Word has been received in Mer-
cedes through Congressman John N,
Garner of this district that rural
route No. 2 has been authorized by
the Postoffice Department and will
be established effective the first day
of October,
ALAMO RESIDENT
PLANS BEAUTY SPOT
C. Piper of Alamo, one of the oldest
residents of this part of the Valley,
has recently acquired_30 acres of land
south of Alamo which he is develop-
ing into one of the show places of
this section.
The ranch is to be called El Gato
Rancho, retaining an old Spanish
name for the place, and has many
natural advantages of which the Pip-
ers are making full use. They have
retained some picturesque old mes-
quite trees, and numerous ralantas,
ebonys and comos. The place is lo-
cated on the rim of the second lift,
just above an old and often dry lake
bed. This Mr Piper has dredged out
and dammed and filled with water,
forming a lake two or three acres in
extent,gwhich he will eventually stock
with fish.
.Entrant© to the farm is by means
of a winding driveway, in part to be
shaded by palms and in part by native
trees. The drive winds along the rim
and affords a beautiful view of the
lakeland the woods to the south.
A cement foundation is now laid
for a roomy, strictly up to date Cali-
fornia bungalow. Mr. Piper has re-
! cently set out 140 thrifty four year
In order to stimulate greater in-
terest in cows, hogs and chickens as
a part of our Agricultural Program
for Hidalgo county, the County Agent
and Advisory Board have outlined a
tour of the county with three trucks
decorated and placarded, and on one
truck will be a Jersey cow, on an-
other some sows, and on a third some
hens. This tour will start at Mission
and finish at Mercedes and visit all
intervening points. We hope to have
speakers, from out of the county to
accompany this tour and at each stop
to speak on t£e advantages of these
lines of activity.
It is the desire that as many farm-
ers and business men as can do so
will load their cars and accompany
this tour over the county. It is the
purpose to arouse the people to the
possibilities of greater prosperity by
adding cows, hogs' and chickens to
their farm operations. A few good
cows, a few hogs and some good hens
on every fafrm properly cared for will
mean a steady income all the time.
Watch the papers next week for
the schedule of the tour and the
dates. Let’s have a string of auto-
mobiles , a mile long behind these
trucks.
Dr. Garst, count yhealth officer,
will have a health and sanitation
truck and Mr. Gray will have a truck
showing special rat work. We want
to make this a big tour for the bene-
fit of the people of the county.
JNO. W. KIRKPATRICK,
County Agent.
EXPRESS SERVICE
TD BE EXTENDED
City. Delivery. Recommended, for
Mercedes—Packing Slied to Be
Tripled in Size
J. H. Gillispie, route agent for the
American Railway Express Company,
has made several recommendations to
the main offices of his company for
BANKERS’ MEETING
PROVES A FIZZLE
Promoters Offer no Definite Flans as
Advertised—Wonderful Opportun-
ity Lost to Boost Yalley
Answering the call of Dr. J. J,.
Morton and John C. Couch of
Brownsville, the fifty men of affairs
who attended the meeting in Mer-
cedes Thursday afternoon left after
three hours of profitless discussion*,
still wondering why they were call-
ed upon to waste their valuable time
in being forced to listen to the ex-
periences of others in other section®
of the country, in addition to hear*
ing the old, bid story of the won-
ders of the Valley.
We predict that it will be. a long
time before the promoters of yester-
day’s meeting will be able to fool
the same hard headed business men
who attended into answering another
call.
After A. D. Rogers of McAllen had
been chosen as chairman of the
gathering, Dr. Morton rqse and dwelt
at some length upon his experiences
in all parts of the world. He claim-
ed that the Valley was not using the
right means to attract the right peo-
ple to th/is section. He advocated
the formation of some indefinite kind
of a syndicate which was to buy and
sell land; build houses;'set out cit-
rus groves; attract men of means to
the Valley; develop the Valley as a
winter and health resort, and ex-
tensively advertise the Valley all
over the United States and the
world in general—all without a cent
of money!
Then followed a series of talks
along the same old line, several feel-
ing called upon to tell these men
who had lived for years in the Val-
ley what a wonderful place it is. A
note of common sense was injected
into proceedings by Judge Will West
of Brownsville, who pertinently in-
quired just what the promoters of
the meeting had to offer along the
the improvement of the local ser- lines advocated by Dr. Morton. No»
satisfactory proposal along, any def-
inite lines being made, the meeting:
degenerated into a series of drawn
out boasts of the glory of the Val-
Postmaster Tucker announces that i “ y ' w mriIty Iour
his report on the now route win | “W ^apetruit trees and it is his pur-
have to be prepared by September U’°se t0 put the elltire »lace ollt t0
15, and that , all patrons of the route
must have government approvedj
boxes in place by that time. The
vice. Mr. Gillispie spent several days
in Mercedes recently reviewing the
situation.
He has recommended that delivery
service be established by the Express
company throughout the business
section of the city, stating that the
business done by the company justi-
fies such service.
Recommendation was also made
that the main loading platform in
front of the Farmers’ Cooperative of-
fice be lowered to wagon height and
extended from its present length of
30 feet to 90 feet. The entire plat-
form is to be roofed. These improve-
ments have been under contemplation
for some time, but the company did
not feel justified in making them un-
til the present time.
CITY COUNCIL
ASXS EXPLANATION
Requests Light, Water and Power Of-
ficial to Meet With Council and
Explain Lack of Improvements
would be glad to consider the side- °^ce at once.
route will serve the territory north |
and east of Mercedes, and all living j
in this territory should communicate \
their names to the Mercedes post-!
walks.
I citrus fruit.
Just east of the Piper ranch are
seven acres recently bought by C. C.
Stotler, also of\Alamo, another man
who has been in the Valley for years, j
He is carrying out on his place the ’
same general plan as Mr. Piper—of
lake, winding drive, orchard and na-
tive shade. He is planning to erect
The letter from the Fourth As-, .
It was proposed to add some ad-isis^an*: Postmaster General announc- ;& im*=alow 111 the spiing.
|inB the establishment of the new I ^ Js a ™ry mterestmg and signifl-
ditional _ courses in science. These,
courses* which would include chem-; route follows:
istry, would necessitate laboratory! Washington, D. C., July 30, 1921.
equipment to the extent of five or Hon. John N. Gamer,
six hundred dollars, the laboratory I House of Representatives.
shelving, desks and sinks being al-
ready in the new building, and the
employment of a science instructor,
making an addition to the year’s
cant fact that these two men, who
have been in the Valley longer than
most, are the ones who have the
greatest faith in its future and are
expressing that faith in new pur-
chases of land and in extensive and
permanent developments.
My Dear Mr. Garner: For your in-
formation I take pleasure in inform-
ing you of the authorization of rural
--------0 — --------- . route No. 2, Mercedes, Hidalgo j------------------------
budget of about eighteen hundred or j county, Texas, effective October 1.1 afford convenient and improved facil-
two thousand dollars. The Board j 1921. j ities for approximately 141 families
expiessed themselves as desirous of; This route which was petitioned that now have to go various distances
making this addition, but did not feel j for by Messrs, John W. Heyn, W. L.1 for their mail. Sincerely yours,
that the present budget would war- Parish and others, will serve terri- j H. H. BILLNAY.
(Continued on page ten) . tory northeast of the office and will' Fourth Assist Postmaster General.
A unanimous resolution was passed
by the City Council at its regular
meeting Monday night of this week
advising the city clerk to request the
appearance of E. B. Witmer, for the
Mercedes Light, Water and Power
Company, before the City Council at
its next regular meeting to explain
why certain improvements in the ser-
vice of . the company have not been
made. The Council claims that at
the time this corporation was given
its franchise certain definite prom-
ises were made as to the replacement
of water mains in certain sections of
the city with mains capable of car-
rying more water, and also that the
service was to be extended to other
portions of the city. It was also un-
derstood that the power house was to
be replaced with a brick structure,
which replacement would materially
reduce the city’s fire insurance key
rate.
It is the desire of the City Council
to go thoroughly into the matter with
the Light, Water and Power Company
as complaints have been made both
regarding the service rendered to the
water users and as to the rates
charged for water and electricity.
ley.
Finally Mr. Lamberton of Browns-
ville moved that a committee be ap-
pointed composed of one man from*
each city in the Valley to formulate'
a scheme designed along the line®
suggested by Dr. Morton. The mo-
tion being duly carried, Mr. Rogers
appointed a committee to report back
at some future meeting, Mayor J. E».
Haynes will represent Mercedes.
Among those who lost an after-
noon’s business by attendance were
Messrs. Duff, Caldwell and Flynn of
Mission; Henninger of Sharyland; R..
E. Horn, A. D. Rogers, R. L. Lewis,.
L. R. Daniel, Dr. John Hunter of
McAllen; Cook, Hill, Houston Jones,.
J. D. Shaw and Warnke of Pharr r
Ewers of San Juan; Dr. Martin of
Alamo; Chambers and Ridgway of
Donna; Couch, Dr. Morton, HotL.
Lamberton and West of Brownsville;
and Haynes, Adams, Sewali, Wentz*.
Buck, Neal, Hoyt and F. E. Bennett
of Mercedes.
SMALL BLAZE WAS
QUICKLY EXTINGUISHER
The Mercedes Fire Department was
called to the Valley Gin Company’s
Mercedes gin late Monday afternoon
to extinguish a blaze which had
started in one of the stands. The-
fire truck was at the gin within five
minutes after the alarm was sounded
and the,fire was quickly under con-
trol.
Trouble is being experienced by alt
of the gins in the Valley due to the
carelessness of cotton pickers in
leaving foreign matter in the cottqra
which is brought to the gin. In the
present case it was very fortunate
that the fire was discovered before
the cotton was baled, in which case
it would have been a total loss.
--—n--—
Mine Owner Invests Near Mercedes
William Dodd, owner of several
money making mines in the state of
Jalisco, Mexico, has recently pur-
chased a ten acre tract in the Silver
addition, which he plans to set out
in citrus trees. His family are at
present in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
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Holland, W. D. & Buell, Ralph L. Mercedes Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, August 12, 1921, newspaper, August 12, 1921; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth637931/m1/1/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.