Old Border Claim Settled.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 28, 1912:
United States to Pay Mexico for Disputed El Paso Tract.
    WASHINGTON, July 27.— The Mexican Ambassador and the State Department to-day reached an agreement on the long-standing dispute regarding the ownership of the Chamizal tract of about 550 acres, forming part of the city of El Paso, Texas, on the basis of the purchase of the land from Mexico by the United States. The tract is believed to be worth approximately $1,000,000.
    The tract involved has been for many years a part of the city of El Paso, about 6,000 inhabitants making their homes upon it. In 1894 Mexico submitted a claim to the land on the basis of its separation from Mexico by "avulsion" or a rapid cutting off owing to a change in the channel of the river. The Boundary Commission failing to agree, the matter was referred by treaty to another commission which on June 15, 1911, gave an opinion which, in effect, divided the territory in dispute between the two countries. This held that the land between the middle of the bed of the Rio Grande as it ran in 1852, and the middle of the bed of the river as it existed before the flood of 1864 was in the United States, and the title to the remainder in Mexico.
    This decision brought forth a vigorous protest from the American Commissioner, who held that it would be totally impossible at present to locate the channel of 1864, and that the award was, therefore, impossible of execution.
    Even the Mexican Government realized that it was impossible to carry out the decree of the commission, and agreed to settle the matter by direct negotiations with the United States Government. These have just terminated successfully, and it will now remain for the Governments of the two countries through their Congresses to ratify the agreement and for the United States to appropriate money to reimburse Mexico for the territory in question.