Carl William Ackerman

“ As the launch swerves toward the dock one sees several hundred Mexican labourers standing about the narrow-gauge railway track, awaiting the departure of the work train for the fields.
Puffing along at eight miles an hour the dummy engine jerks and whines through the jungle to the camp at Juan Casiano. Beside the tracks one sees mahogany and oak trees, banana plants, orange groves, cornfields, and here and there the straw-thatched roof of a peon's home. Men and women are dressed in one-piece garments; many children are naked ”

“ AMERICAN warships are stationed at Tampico to-day to watch Germany's ally in Mexico. From time to time one of them lifts anchor, steams out of the Pánuco River and patrols the Gulf Coast. Suspicious ships are examined, wireless messages are picked up, and night and day the trained eyes of the lookouts search the seas for hostile periscopes. When one returns the other slips away under cover of darkness to a secret destination. ”

“ Though one is tempted to look for practical evidences of the motto, one does not, because it might not be safe! Explorations in an oil jungle should be limited to oil. At least that is what I was advised.
It is not safe, either, to send money to Pelaez or Enriquez, except by trusted messenger. The danger is not so much that the money might be lost or stolen as that some government authority might hear of it and you might be arrested for giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the Mexican Government, The cautious policy is always the safest in Mexico. ”

“ They don't want President Carranza to control the oil fields, especially during the war. They fear that if his generals control the wells they will submit to German influence and demand a prohibitive tax under threat of cutting the pipe lines. The oil companies are opposed to the policy of the United States Government in lifting the embargo on war material, because they maintain that if the present government begins an attack upon Pelaez the oil companies will suffer. They declare that the only thing that maintains peace is the lack of ammunition. ”

“ An excessive export tax on petroleum and gasoline, amounting to from 20 per cent to 50 per cent of the value of the oil at the wells, has been "decreed," and is in effect and payable in July, 1917.
If the principle is accepted, Mexico is in a position to embargo shipments of oil to the Allies by increase of the export tax. No friendship toward the Allied cause has been manifested by the de facto government of such nature as to lead one to suspect that Mexico will fail to so embargo exports.
Art. 123. By this article, 49 per cent of a body of strikers may legally destroy properties and lives. ”

“ The oil producers maintain Pelaez, his soldiers and his government, and they contribute more than any other foreign interest toward the revenues of the present Mexican Government.
But—and this is where the story of King Pelaez begins—the trouble at Tampico has not been in the territory controlled by the bandit, but within the city limits, dominated by the central government. There have been no strikes in the oil districts where this black, crude product gushes from the earth at the rate of nearly a million barrels a day. No American lives have been lost ”

“ The production of the United States can be increased, if at all, only slightly. The Mexican production is there already. It is in the hands of American and British companies which have taken the risk and made the great investment to get it. If their rights are respected or made respected by their governments there will be no shortage of petroleum supplies for the United States and the Allies in the war. ”

“ The Mexican Government sent rifles and ammunition to General Mariel, one of the Carranza leaders along the Gulf of Mexico, who immediately armed the half-civilised Teptzintla and Santa Maria Indians. These wild men started to raid the outskirts of the oil district and Enriquez's Indian general with a band of troopers was sent out to halt them. In thirty-five days of wilderness fighting two hundred Indians were accounted for, and then the general entered a small town where he found seven bandits—he called the Carranza troops bandits—terrorising the village. ”

“ I found them preparing the workers for another lockout by urging the men to strike for higher wages, though the wages being paid were the highest in the world for this kind of labour. The I.W.W. propaganda is as lawless as the German agitation in Russia, but always one American man-of-war has its eyes on the city. The captain in command, the United States consul and the representatives of the American and British oil companies are watching, working and waiting. ”

“ The river must be dredged constantly to enable the ocean-going liners to reach the docks. Throughout the revolution all oil companies have been paying six cents a barrel bar tax to keep the river deep enough for their ships, but for nearly four years little dredging has been done.
A few months ago the central government notified the oil companies that an American dredging concern had been engaged to work in the river and that the oil companies would have to pay the costs, amounting to one hundred thousand dollars a month. ”

“ The German-paid Industrial Workers take advantage of every event to incite the labourers, the poor peon puppets of the ruthless leaders. They are paid and inspired by German influences, as even Herr Mueller, the Austrian consul, acknowledged. ”

“ The planting is as primitive as the people are. The natives punch a hole in the earth with a stick, drop a grain of corn and cover it up. In two months they can gather the ears.
After one has travelled a few miles by train one enters the oil fields. Between the hills of the rolling country one sees the derricks where wells are being drilled. When the oil begins to gush out of the hole it is diverted into pipe lines, which carry it sixty miles to Tampico. ”

“ Article 27 deliberately confiscates the oil properties acquired by British and American companies. Oil in Mexico has always been the property of the owner of the fee. The companies mentioned have spent large amounts of money to acquire oil rights by purchase and lease. The effect of this "constitutional" provision, if it is recognised as legal, is to make Mexican petroleum the inalienable property of the Nation. As such, being contraband, neutral Mexico cannot allow its shipment to belligerent nations. ”

“ The principal oil-producing companies entered the field of oil exploration under inducement contracts providing that no special or export taxes should be levied against their products. The Mining Law of 1887, never repealed, provides that petroleum shall not be specially taxed. ”

“ With conditions so unsettled and dangers lurking in every business deal the oil companies today are doing no development work. They are taking no chances. They believe that Article Twenty-seven of the Mexican Constitution permits the government to confiscate their property and they declare that they cannot afford to spend more money in Tampico until they know how the government intends to interpret this. ”

“ Spanish moss, orchids and other plants grow as parasites over the trees, many of which are being strangled to death by this growth. Many parts of this territory have never been explored. Wild beasts rule the forests and hills. ”

“ MEXICO'S DILEMMA
dollars from one of the companies. The corporation had already paid a large sum and could not afford to meet his requirements; but Pelaez was, at the time, an unlimited monarch. He made war or peace as freely as the German Kaiser. And inasmuch as Pelaez had the army to destroy the company's wells the treasurer knew the taxes had to be paid, so he bought twenty thousand dollars in counterfeit money and gave it to Pelaez. The general did not examine the bills, and everything was satisfactory. ”

“ Some places along the line the natives have planted corn. Their cattle graze along the roadway, and frequently the train stops to give the cows time to get off the track. Fields are so fertile that the corn averages more than twelve feet in height. ”

“ It has been running steadily since 1914. The best wells produce more than sixty thousand barrels a day, and no well is considered very productive that does not give up ten thousand barrels between sunrise and sunrise. ”

“ He lost forty thousand pesos and joined the forces against the First Chief of the Constitutionalists. He is fighting in the field to-day, awaiting the time when a responsible government will be established in Mexico City. Then he will go back into business."
I was talking to one of the producers one day when he asked whether I would like to meet Pelaez and Enriquez.
"The oil king?" I asked. "Certainly! Long live the king!"
THE GUSHER OF THE CERRO AZUL OIL WELL—600 FEET HIGH
When one is in Mexico one must do as the Mexicans do! ”