The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 83, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 1928 Page: 1 of 8
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When truth or virtue an affront
endures,
Th’ affront is mine, my friend,
and should be yours.
—Pope, in Epilogue to Satires
01 he -tllterce&ee iflenr*
Tuesday Morning and Friday Morning
WANT ADS IN
THE “NEWS” ALWAYS
BRING RESULTS
VOLUME V.
MERCEDES. TEXAS. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1928
NUMBER 83
CITRUS COOPERATIVE DENUUDS RETRACTION
MAP SHOWS CONDITION TEXAS CROP
SOUTHLAND LIFE
MONTHLY CROP REPORT
August-1928
■excellent
13 ABOVE NORMAL
O NORMAL ORUNPLANTEO
©BELOW NORMAL
• DAMAGE BY INSECTS OR
ROOT ROT REPORTED
DANCY ASKS
EXPERT FOR
POINT PORT
Wants Cameron County
To Hire Navigation
Advisor
MUST HAVE WATER
TO JUSTIFY ROAD
Houston Man Suggested
As Suitable For
The Job
Judge Oscar C. Dancy is to lay be-
fore the commissioners’ court of
Cameron county a communication in
which he urges the employment by
that county of “some combination
of harbor engineer and business man
to come here and make a survey and
locate by metes and bounds the
necessary acreage-and give us prac-
tical advice” for a harbor at Brazos
Santiago pass.
The judge prefaces his discussion
of a port at Point Isabel with a re-
cital of the needs of a road to the
Point. He argued that the road is
not needed unless the port is built
and the inference is that the port
should be built to justify the road.
At any rate he asks that a Mr.
Cummings, of Houston, a member of
the port commission of Harris cbun-
ty, or some other expert be em-
ployed to make a survey and at-
tend to matters incident to acquir-
ing the necessary ground for port
facilities. Judge Dancy’s communi-
cation is as follows:
To the Commissioners’ Court:
This is Monday night, August 27,
after the run-off primary. The elec-
tion is over; the country is saved, so
let’s get down and do the day’s
work and tackle our hardest and
biggest problems first—THE HAR-
BOR AT BRAZOS SANTIAGO
PASS.
Barreda Pavement
Of course the Valley’s biggest
problem is settling our international
water rights and the storage of the
flood waters of the Rio Grande, but
a problem of almost, if not equal,
importance, and of as great if not
greater immediate importance, be-
cause it means development and
consequently is a stepping stone to
storage is the securing of real deep
water at Brazos Santiago.
For the beneficial use, if not for
obtaining it in the first place, is the
absolute necessity of completing the
pavement from Barreda and Browns-
ville via Los Fresnos to Point Isa-
bel. For the past five years, I, as
your county judge, have been mak-
ing unceasing efforts for the Bar-
reda-Point Isabel road and for build-
ing it county-wide and state-wide
and in 1923 we obtained from the
highway commission an allotment of
$201,000.00 for this purpose, which
we did not receive as the bond is-
sue for the county’s part failed to
carry. I blame myself more than
anyone else for this failure but it is
water which “has now passed over
the wheel,” and it is up to the Com-
missioners’ Court to get the matter
going again.
The United States Engineers are
taking it for granted that Cameron
County is going to furnish a paved
road there. Some months ago, Col.
Ferguson, division engineer at New
Orleans, told me this in so many
words. This was on the occasion of
his visit here some months ago. Two
interviews with Major General Jad-
win, chief of the water board at
Washington, have been substantially
to the same effect. Only this sum-
mer we have witnessed with our
own eyes truck trains hauling the
Valley’s cotton right from Browns-
ville to Corpus Christi and this year
we have seen the Corpus Christi port
nearly 200 miles away help the
Valley farmers in getting cheaper
freight rates on cotton, and for us
to fall down on getting a port is
almost unthinkable but there are
many things to consider and an
enormous amount of work to be
done.
Getting the Road
In 1923 when the dredges first
started we started after aid and
got it unconditionally in the sum of
$201,000.00, which we lost. Later
we got aid for grading and struc-
tures about the last official act of
the commission composed of Messrs.
Hubbard and Martin was to make
a tentative allotment of $30,000.00
aid; it was tentative because they
did not have the money then, but it
was such an order spread upon the
minutes that Mr. Moseley, when he
became chairman, felt should be fol-
(See DANCY SAYS, page 3)
News Article Leads
To Apprehension of
“Hot Check” Artist
Reading an article on page 1
of the Mercedes News of August
31, the manager of the Bixby
filling station saved himself some
money and secured information
that led to the location of one of
the “hot check” artists operat-
ing the Valley for the past few
weeks.
This article carried the infor-
mation that a supposed ring was
operating in this section and
when a stranger presented a
che^jc bearing the signature men-
tioned in the News the proprietor
refused to cash it, noted- the car
number, secured other informa-
tion about the man and immedi-
ately got in touch with the local
office of the Retail Merchants’
Association with the result that
the man was apprehended.
Mercedes Schools
To Begin 1928-29
Year Next Monday
Teachers Institute Sat-
urday ; Many Courses
Offered Students
With practically all teachers in
the Mercedes public schools already
in the city, and those not here ex-
pected not later than tomorrow
morning, everything is in readiness
for school to open here Monday
morning promptly at 9 o’clock. All
school buildings have been made
ready for the opening, the school
grounds have been worked over,
grass cut, and the entire system
presents a state of preparedness for
the opening of one of the best
years in the history of the school.
Institute for the teachers will be
held at the local school this year in-
stead of having county and bi-county
institutes as has been done in pre-
vious years. The last session of the
state legislature passed a bill abol-
ishing the county institute of one
week, and only requires teachers to
attend a local institute of not more
than two days in the case of inde-
pendent school districts, and this is
to be taken up with organization of
the school for-the coming year if it
is needed. The Mercedes school
will have only one day of this work
for the teachers. This gives the
school 36 weeks of work instead of
35.
Students Enroll Monday
Students in the junior and senior
high schools will be expected to en-
roll Monday and Tuesday. Regular
class work will not begin for them
until Tuesday afternoon.
Monday morning at 9 o’clock all
students in the eighth and eleventh
grades will report for enrollment.
Monday afternoon at 1 o’clock all
students in the seventh and tenth
grades will enroll. Tuesday after-
noon all junior and senior high
school pupils will report to their
first period classes for regular
class work. The school officials
request that the students carefully
note the time for matriculation and
remain away from the school
campus until time for them to en-
roll.
Grammar Schools
All grammar school students, in
the first to fifth grades inclusive,
will be_ expected to report to their
respective buildings Monday morn-
ing at 9 o’clock. A greater part of
the day will be spent in classifica-
tion and organization.
The boys and girls in all the
schools are requested to bring their
last year’s report cards and book
cards when they report to school for
matriculation.
No child will be admitted to the
primary department unless he or she
was six years of age before Sep-
tember 1, 1928. A child who be-
comes six years of age between Sep-
tember 1, 1928, and January 1, 1929,
will be admitted at the beginning of
the second semester.
School Offers Many Courses
The Mercedes high school for 1928-
1919 will offer a variety of courses.
Students wishing to continue studies
toward a degree in engineering may
pursue a mathematical course of al-
gebra, plane geometry, solid geom-
etry, trigonometry and advanced
arithmetic.
Students interested in science may
elect a scientific course of general
science, biology, physics, chemistry
and physiology.
The girls may select a home mak-
ing course consisting of studies on
foods, clothing, design, home nurs-
ing and personal hygiene. The boys
or girls who expect to study law
(See MERCEDES, page 8)
SHEPPARD
PUZZLE TO
THE STATE
Militant Stand for A1
Smith by Dry Leader
Was Unexpected
IS BOMBSHELL TO
HOOVER DEMOS
May Affect Senior Sen-
ator’s 1930 Race
For Senate
By ED KILMAN
Little Eva in a petting bee with
Simon Legree; Hairbreadth Harry
volunteering as best man at the
wedding of Belinda and Rudolph
Rassendale; the Mission chamber of
commerce advising homeseekers to
settle at Mercedes ....
Any one or all these propositions
could be laughed off with chapped
lips, as bughouse fables. But when
Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas,
author of the sacred 18th amend-
ment, is announced by himself per-
sonally and not through hearsay, in
militant championship of A1 Smith’s
candidacy for president, the ques-
tion arises and demands answer:
How come?
Sheppard, ipso facto, is the living
apothesis of prohibition. Smith is
the reputed guiding light and mov-
ing spirit of the wets. How can
you reconcile their political bedfel-
lowship ?
It’s harder, on the face of it, than
an ask me-another-contest; but not
so weird or perplexing when you
stop to analyze it. The answer, as
constructed by some political diag-
nosticians, is one of the most sig-
nificant figures in this fascinating,
complicated Smith-Hoover chess
game that is approaching its tense
stages. And it affords an interest-
ing commentary upon the Texas sit-
uation.
Believes Smith to Enforce
Senator Sheppard’s course might
be construed, from one viewpoint, as
a tacit admission that the scheme of
prohibition as now operated is wrong
and should be corrected somehow.
He pointed out, in his announce-
ment of support of the ticket, that
he believed Smith would keep his
word about enforcing prohibition.
But Smith also has emphasized
above all other aims of his candi-
dacy, the desire to have congress
modify the drw laws. And Sheppard
has espoused his candidacy, most
vigorously.
“The supreme need of the coun-
try,” he declared at Dallas the
other day, “lies this year in the
election of the Smith-Robinson tick-
et.”
However, it is more likely that
Sheppard’s course was governed by
the conviction that Smith’s influ-
ence can not change the prohibi-
tion laws. In fact, he has been rep-
resented as believing them the great-
est laws ever written. In which
event, we have the implied assur-
ance of the man who wrote the or-
ganic dry law of the land—that pro-
hibition is not an issue.
Bolting Democrats Puzzled
Such assurance by their senior
United States senator leaves the
bolting Democrats of Texas in
somewhat the awkward position of
the doughboy in France who start-
ed into a house in the battle area,
when an explosive German shell
struck the house and blew it to
smithreens, leaving the doughboy
standing there holding an unattach-
ed door-knob in his outstretched
hand.
Lieutenant Governor Barry Mil-
ler flung the question in their teeth
at the Dallas meeting Monday:
“When Senator Sheppard can
find it within his conscience to sup-
port Governor Smith, I wonder what
kind of conscience can’t support
him?”
That’s a question the anti-Smith
Democrats have not yet answered.
If the statesman whose name iden-
tified the epochal document that be-
came the 18th amendment sees no
cause for opposing Smith on the dry
issue, why should others not so
closely attuned to the situation do
so?
W. C. T. U. Answer
The nearest thing to an answer
that has been made for publication
as this is written, was by Mrs.
Claude de Van Watts of Austin, the
untiring state W. C. T. U. president
who has a statement at her finger’s
tips for any exigency that may
arise, in the cause of temperance
righteousness. She contented her-
self with merely lamenting Senator
(See SHEPPARD, uage 8)
Present Crop Year
In Texas Is, Most
Peculiar In History
Splendid Outlook For
Cotton, Other Crops
In Panhandle
Dallas, September 6. — Cotton
farmers of Texas have experienced
one of the most peculiar seasons on
record in this state, according to
reports compiled by the Department
of Public Relations of the Southland
Life Insurance Company for Au-
gust.
The outstanding features of the
report are deterioration of the crop
in many sections and the rather
sudden influx of insect infestation
and root rot. The weather for the
next two or three weeks will tell the
story of what cotton production for
Texas will be, although no one can
tell at this time at what rate deter-
ioration will continue.
One of the most peculiar things
about the situation is that while
cotton in most sections is suffering
from drought, it is actually in bad
shape in other sections from too
much rain although these are far
less numerous than those in which
the cotton is deing damaged by dry
weather.
The most encouraging aspect is
the splendid outlook for cotton and
other crops in the Panhandle, com-
bined with unusually good reports
from North Central Texas. The lat-
ter reports are especially good om-
ens since farmers in that section
have been practically without a crop
for two years.
In spite of pessimistic reports,
however, there is every reason to
believe that the cotton crop of Tex-
as will bring slightly better than the
average in money, regardless of
whether the crop is smaller or lar-
ger than is now expected. Agricul-
tural authorities, county agents and
a number of other close observers
agree on this with extremely few
exceptions.
Business conditions, with the ex-
ception of territory around and
south of San Antonio, are regarded
as “above normal.”
About sixty per cent of the grain
crops have been harvested and prob-
ably are responsible for the better
outlook for business at this time
since they are generally regarded as
being above normal.
-o-
Two Boys Arrested
At Donna; To Face
Hot Check Charges
Two young boys, both about 18
years of age, were apprehended by
officers in Donna this week, arrest-
ed and charged with passing worth-
less checks and forgery. Their ar-
rest followed information given out
by the Retail Merchants Associa-
tion of Mercedes in regard to checks
the boys had been cashing in the
Valley.
Frank Marie of San Juan was
one of the boys. The other was
Frank Myers, alias Frank Clark, al-
ias Richard Myers, alias Frank
Prosser. It is understood that he
is wanted by one of the reforma-
tories in California for some of his
activities in that state. He lived in
the Valley at one time but left two
years ago in a car stolen in Mercedes
and with another young fellow.
-o-
Visitors Return Home
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Smith, who
have been visiting in the home of
Mr. and Mrs. N. E. Tucker, left this
morning for their home in San An-
gelo, Texas.
McAllen Elks Plan
Consolidation With
Lodge Here Soon
100 Members Would
Receive Benefit
New Home
Mercedes Elks’ Lodge, already
the largest in the Valley and South-
west Texas, is expected to receive
a membership increase of over 100
as the result of the pending action
of the McAllen lodge in asking that
their charter be cancelled and all
members made members of the
lodge here. This would give the
Elks here a membership of approx-
imately 750 and would very mater-
ially increase the prestige of the
local organization.
The McAllen lodge is taking the
action so that they may receive the
benefits of the beautiful club home
recently completed here. They will
also become a part of the most ac-
tive club in the state and will par-
ticipate in the many affairs the lo-
cal fraternity is planning for the
fall and winter season.
Judge L. T. Hoyt, exalted ruler of
the Mercedes lodge, and grand dis-
trict deputy exalted ruler, stated
Thursday afternoon that the Elks
here are preparing a program of
events for the season that will be
unparalleled in this section. This
program is due to get under way in
the very near future.
Thursday night the lodge took in
a class of more than 50 new mem-
bers. The attendance was very
large and many visiting Elks were
present.
-o-
Beautification Plan
For City Outlined
By Women’s Club
At the recent executive meeting
of the Mercedes Business and Pro-
fessional Women’s Club, Miss Beth
Garrett, chairman of the civic com-
mittee outlined the city beautifica-
tion plan which that committee has
in charge. The plan includes the
Landscaping and Flower Gardening
library under the supervision of Mrs.
W. E. McDonnell at the First Na-
tional Bank. The material for the
library is being collected and filed
and will soon be ready to be checked
out by the public. The length of
time which the material can be kept
out is one week and there will be a
fine for material lost and for ma-
terial kept overtime.
Another part of the city beauti-
fication plan is the Landscape and
Flower Gardening School to be held
in Mercedes the first part of Octo-
ber. The committee is working on
the plans for this school and many
of the leading florists and landscape
artists in the Valley are co-operat-
ing.
Mrs. Pearl Mestel, chairman of
the health committee of the organ-
ization, presented a plan for hav-
ing a health clinic in Mercedes.
This will be worked out more com-
pletely by the committee and re-
ported to the organization at their
next meeting.
The monthly banquet of the Busi-
ness and Professional women will
be held in the Methodist Church An-
nex, Sept. 13. The next regular ex-
ecutive meeting will be held in the
American Legion Hall the second
Thursday in October. This latter
place will be the regular meeting
place for the organization this
winter.
-o-
Visiting Parents Here
Mrs. A. L. Stephens of Coushatta,
Louisiana, arrived Sunday morning
to visit her parents, Judge and Mrs.
S. P. Silver.
BEACH SAYS
NINE FEET IS
BIG ENOUGH
Engineer Urges Small
Channel For The
, Arroyo
LACK TONNAGE
FOR LARGER ONE
Report Is Read Before
Civic Meeting At
Harlingen
General Lansing H. Beach recom-
mended the construction of a nine
foot ship channel’ through the Ar-
royo Colorado and Padre Island to
the Gulf of Mexico, it was an-
nounced last night by the board of
the Arroyo navigation district be-
fore a mass meeting of citizens of
the district at Harlingen.
The noted engineer, who recently
completed a survey of the arroyo as
a ship channel, pointed out that the
Valley does not now have sufficient
tonnage to warrant a larger channel,
although he made estimates on a
sixteen foot channel both through
Padre Island at the mouth of the ar-
royo and through Brazos Santiago
pass. The estimate of cost was
about $2,500,000 for a 16-foot chan-
nel that would accommodate the
largest boats that draw sixteen feet
of water or less and approximately
$1,000,000 less for smaller boats.
He told the board that the dis-
trict could construct a nine-foot
channel with necessary jetties for
the money it has on hand. The di-
gest of the report that was read
before last night’s meeting is as
follows :
Digest of Engineer’s Report:
Your board of navigation and
canal commissioners of the Arroyo
Colorado navigation district of Cam-
eron and Willacy counties herewith
presents to you as representatives
of this community the estimates and
recommend?; rs of Major General
Lansing H. ,..::ach, U. S. army, re-
tired, in respect to a ship channel
from Harlingen to deep water in the
Gulf of Mexico.
All of you will recall that some
six weeks ago numerous committees
of citizens were called together for
the purpose of hearing the desires
and wishes of the people of the Dis-
trict with reference to action by the
Navigation Commission. Opon rec-
ommendations made by these citi-
zens’ committees to employ the ab-
lest engineer to be had, preferably
a man having had government con-
nection, we employed General Beach
to make an estimate of cost of 16
foot of water to the Gulf of Mexi-
co, from the mouth of the Arroyo
eastward, and southerly to Point
Isabel.
Three Channels Discussed
These estimates and reports fall
into three main categories, namely:
a nine-foot channel, a sixteen foot
channel for small boats and a six-
teen foot channel for very long
boats. The report contained within
the covers of a voluminous written
report which was handed to me, has
to do only with the latter and con-
tains a great many maps and charts
dealing with the engineering phases
of the situation as well as a great
deal of technical discussion which is
doubtless clear to engineers and
which I shall not read because it
bears no relation to what you gen-
tlemen want to know. We are tak-
ing from the report in this state-
ment all of those sections which re-
late to the practicability and cost
of the channel, some of which are
contained in the written report and
some of which were given to the
chairman of the board verbally.
We should state at the outset that
when he had completed this engi-
neering report, General Beach, in
his room at the Reese-Wil-Mond
hotel to your chairman, said in sub-
stance :
“I am giving you my estimate on
a sixteen foot channel to the gulf
together with my recommendations
as to the various routes in accord-
ance with the terms under which I
was employed. However, I would
not be doing my duty if I did not
tell you that in my opinion this
channel is of too ambitious a char-
acter for your Valley at this time.
Nine Feet Urged
“I believe that what you should do
is to proceed upon the construction
of a nine foot channel from Har-
lingen to the gulf through Padre
Island. You have 6n hand funds for
this work, in my opinion, not only
for the necessary dredging to be
(See BEACH SAYS, page 2)
Boy Scouts Tell
Rotary Club About
Recent Encampment
Members of the Rotary Club were
entertained at their Tuesday lunch-
eon by a report on the recent boy
scout encampment at Rio Hondo
given by Price Fitzz, member of one
of the boy scout troops here. Chas.
Van Berg, another Boy Scout, was
present, as well as W. Ed Perry,
scoutmaster.
The boys work committee of the
local club have sent letters and ques-
tionairres to all boys in high school
last year who should return this
year. These letters urge the stud-
ents to return to school and finish
their education and the question-
airres are to secure information that
might enable the club to help the
boy attend.
-o--
Provisions Of
Milk Ordinance
Are Now In Force
Ebonyhurst Dairy Now
Building One of Most
Modem Plants
Placing in operation the milk ordi-
nance passed some time ago by the
city of Mercedes has been done in
record time according to representa-
tives of the county health depart-
ment, under whose supervision the
enforcement of the ordinance was
placed by the city. Although it
usually requires at least six months
to secure the co-operation of the
dairies and milk dispensers in meet-
ing the provisions of these ordi-
nances, the work in Mercedes has
been done in less than four months.
Placards are now displayed by all
stores, restaurants and drug stores
in the city stating the quality of
milk being sold. All dairies are com-
plying with the regulations of the
health department and the city is
receiving the best grade of milk
possible to obtain.
The Ebonyhurst Dairy, one of the
largest in this part of the Valley,
has just announced a building pro-
gram which will make this one of
the model dairy establishments of
the State. The new dairy barn, 37
by 123 feet, in size, is now under
construction. It will have concrete
floors, feed mangers and gutters,
swinging stanchions of the most
modern type, and every other fa-
cility to make it pass every city,
county and state regulation for the
production of grade “A” milk.
All mangers will slope on a grade
to a drain provided for each and
these will connect with the main
sewerage system emptying into a
large septic tank six by sixteen feet,
some distance away from the barn.
A storm barn will be provided 42
by 120 feet for protection of cows
during cold weather. There will be
a feed grinding room 42 by 60 feet,
erected between these two main
buildings. A large silo is a part of
the plant and on top of this will be
a watertank fed by windmill so that
running water will be available at
any part of the establishment at all
times.
The dairy house is about com-
pleted and is 22 by 24 feet. This
house has a milk bottling room,
bottle washing room, cold room,
engine room, steam room and boiler
room. It will be finished in rock
plaster board, cement plastered and
topped with white enamel. The
sewerage system in this building in-
sures the very best of sanitation.
In the construction of this modern
dairy plant the owners have con-
sulted with and co-operated with
the Hidalgo county health depart-
ment and representatives of the
state health department so that ev-
ery feature of the establishment
will meet the requirements of the
milk ordinance in force in prac-
tically every Valley city.
“It is our desire to sell only the
very highest grade of milk,” George
Morrison, manager of Ebonyhurst
dairy states. “In building this new
plant at Mercedes we will be pre-
pared to enlarge our herd sufficient
to' meet the demand for our prod-
uct.”
--o-
Rayburn Brown To
Leave For College
Rayburn Brown will leave for
Georgetown, Texas, tomorrow where
he will attend Southwestern Uni-
versity this winter. He is returning
early to put out the first two issues
of the school paper, “The Mega-
phone.” The regular editor of the
paper is not returning to school and
Rayburn is substituting for him un-
til an election can be held by the
student body of the school.
ASSOCIATION
SAYS STORY
IS UNTRUTH
Directors Reply to Mis-
sion Times Story On
Plant Sale Here
NO PROFIT PAID
PLANT BUILDERS
All Details Of Entire
Transaction Are Made
Public In Letter
Branding as “wholly untrue” and
“without a shadow of justification”
the story appearing in the Mission
Times of last Friday that the Rio
Grande Valley Citrus Growers asso-
ciation had paid the American Rio
Grande Land & Irrigation company
a profit of $20,000 in purchasing
their new citrus packing plant here,
the directors of the association in
a letter addressed to Ralph G. Bray,
editor of the Times and under whos^.
name the article appeared, demand-
ed a retraction of the charges and
publication of the facts of the trans-
action. This letter was mailed to
Mr. Bray Wednesday afternoon and
copies were sent to every member of
the Association and *to all newspa-
pers in the Valley.
The Mission Times article charged
that the packing plant had been sold
to the association for $65,000 and
that it only cost $45,000.
Plant Sold at Loss
The letter of the Association set
forth the cost of the plant here,
showing it to be $54,936.33 and gave
h detailed statement of the entire
transaction showing that the re-
mainder of the bond issue of $65,-
000 and the $10,000 cash payment
was for money advanced by the
American company for the purch-
ase of the old packing plant, ma-
chinery, supplies and miscellaneous
equipment.
The letter also shows that the
American company actually lost
money on the transaction and that
they took six per cent ten year
bonds at par value in the amount of
$65,000 for the plant and for these
monies advanced.
Chas. J. Volz, L. V. Kiester, E. P.
Cartmell, Archie R. Harwood, Clell
Solether, A. F. Hendricks and R. H.
Osborne were the directors signing
the letter which follows in full:
“The Mission Times, in its issue
of August 31, 1928, publishes un-
der your name an article containing
statements and charges concerning
this Association that are untrue, and
of such nature as to do great in-
jury to this Association, and to us
as its directors. The undersigned,
Chas. J. Volz, L. V. Kiester, E. P.
Cartmell, Archie R. Harwood, Clell
Solether, A. F. Hendricks and R. H.
Osborne, are the directors of the Rio
Grande Valley Citrus Growers asso-
ciation, and are writing you this let-
ter to ask that you publish same in
the Mission Times, and that you cor-
rect the statements and retract the
charges made in that article, and
remedy so far as you can the in-
justice and injury done thereby to
this Association, and to us, its direc-
tors.
“This article as published in your
paper has a headline across the page
reading, ‘Mercedes Company Gets
Profits From Citrus Farmers,’ and
other headlines reading, ‘Sell Pack-
ing Plant Costing $45,000 to Grow-
ers for $65,000,’ arid ‘Branding A
Sham.’
“Although the names of the Rio
Grande Valley Citrus Growers asso-
ciation, and of the American Rio
Grande Land and Irrigation com-
pany are not expressly stated in the
article, same clearly refers to this
association, and its business trans-
actions with that company, and will
be so understood by all readers
thereof. You will not deny that
you, and the Mission Times, and
any others responsible for that ar-
ticle, meant same to designate and
apply to this association, and its
transactions with said Company.
Charges Wholly Untrue
“This article directly and express-
ly charges, in substance, that said
American company sold to this asso-
ciation for $65,000 a packing plant
that cost $45,000, and thus made a
profit from this Association and its
member growers of $20,000. This
charge is wholly untrue, is a pure
invention without a shadow of jus-
tification, and no facts exist to war-
rant same or any similar charge.
“If we, as the directors of the As-
sociation, elected by its members
(See ASSOCIATION, page 6)
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The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 83, Ed. 1 Friday, September 7, 1928, newspaper, September 7, 1928; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth651685/m1/1/?q=waco+tornado: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.