Loss In Mexico 3 Billions.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 30, 1912:
But Americans There Will Recoup Ultimately, Says N. Rhoades, Jr.
    Some of the dangers and difficulties confronting Americans in Mexico in their attempts to carry on business were described yesterday by Nelson Rhoades. Jr., who for twenty-five years has been identified with large American interests there.
    He is the head of the Almada Sugar Refineries Company at Navolato, which owns 70,000 acres of cane-growing lands on the west coast of Mexico, and is President of the Sinaloa Land Development Company and other companies controlling about 6,000,000 acres of land, including the great Palomas ranch, which runs for 169 miles along the frontiers of Mexico and the United States, and is said to be the largest in the world.
    "I was on my way with funds to pay 2,000 men employed in our sugar mills at Navolato, when 5,000 rebels under half a dozen leaders attacked and pillaged the city," said Mr. Rhoades, who is at the Savoy Hotel. "I asked the leaders for protection, which they said they could not give me, because their men would not permit any such arrangement. I told them I was carrying the money, that I was unarmed, but that if they took the money they would be taking the bread out of the mouths of their fellow countrymen who were working for us. I was allowed to keep the money. My long residence there and the assistance I had given to the people of the district was well known, and the fact that I was allowed to carry on business and keep my money was due to that fact, while thousands of other Americans had to depart.
    "The loss so far to American investments in Mexico is close to $3,000,000,000, but it will all be made good ultimately, in the future, conditions there will be better than they have ever been, but we must wait until the Mexican Government can solve its own problems, which I think would be better in the long run than intervention. The lines of the Southern Pacific Road for 200 miles have been destroyed. Railway conditions are so bad that we have had to put on a fleet of steamers to handle our products by water. The injury to the sugar-producing territory is about 50 per cent.
    "There is no feeling against Americans. They are better liked than any other foreigners there. The whole situation is due to the internal conditions."