Arizona state miner. [volume], December 26, 1919, Image 8

About Arizona state miner. [volume] (Wickenburg, Ariz.) 1919-1927

Image provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

                
GONIROLTHE NATION
FINANCIERS WHO DEFINE THEIR
POLICIES AND MOULD PUB
LIC OPINION.
WHAT MEXICO DESIRES
HOW AMERICAN OIL INTERESTS
ARE DOMINATING PRODUC
TION AND PRICES.
The financial power of the United
States is centered in a small group
of men, who by interlocking director
ates control all the other large inter
ests. No great natural movement, or
important act of Congress takes place
unless sanctioned by these interests.
Unfortunately they think and plan in
terms of dollars. Justice, right and
honor are too often only words to cov
er true motives .
The great industries, like railroads,
packers, telegraph, oil, copper and iron
mines, steel mills, are only strands of
the great union all cabled together.
Their strength depends upon their
unity; the breaking of one strand
weakens the whole, therefore in every
important issue they stand united.
The policy of these great financial
interests are clearly defined and infor
mation fitted to this policy is promul
gated by publications in a great meas
ure owned and controlled by these in
terests for purposes of moulding public
opinion. This power of the press
makes and unmakes reputations,
arouses and subdues the passions of
men; played its part in winning the
world war and is playing its part in
our present war with Mexico. This ca
ble of interests is preparing to bind
Mexico, because she is weak and strug
gling with revolution and banditry, so
that she may be despoiled of her great
wealth and natural resources.
The Oil Fields.
Probably the largest and richest oil
fields of North America are in Mexico.
They are largely owned and controlled
by companies from Belgium, England
and the United States. Concessions for
the oil fields as well as much other
property were obtained from the ad
ministration under Diaz. The present
administration under Carranza, recog
nizing the ancient law that the sub-sur
face rights are the inherent property
of the people of Mexico, and that when
the Diaz administration granted con
cessions to the oil companies they were
giving away what was not theirs to
give. The companies have taken their
case before the Supreme Court of Mex
ico, each side awaiting a favorable ver
dict ; the oil companies on the one side,
that they may retain the oil wells for
their own profit and gain, and the ad
ministration on the other that the oil
wells should yield some advantage to
the Mexican people.
The Methods of the Oil Companies.
A few large companies practically
dominate the oil situation in Mexico.
Their concessions are so placed that
they can drain much of the oil depos
its; they own the pipe lines and oil
transports. The price of oil in Tam
pico is placed so low that they can buy
up the oil of the small producers at
nearly cost. If these producers sell
their oil in the markets of the United
States the Standard Oil and its allied
companies absorb all the profit by ex
orbitant pipe line and transportation
charges. Whatever profits might be
made by small investors and operators
In the oil field, ventually is taken by
these few large companies.
What Mexico Wants.
All the oil companies are paying
taxes, but the government demands
that they pay a royalty which would
amount to 5 per cent of their produc
tion. This the oil companies refuse to
do, not only because of reducing then
profit by that much, but by so doing they
tacitly admit that the Mexican govern
ment has prior claim. This does not
mean that Mexico wants to operate the
oil wells, but that it will lease them for
a certain per cent of the output. The
administration feels that the law, as
they interpret it, in retaining all sub
surface rights is justified, for in Eng
land all oil deposits are declared to be
the property of the crown, and no one
Is allowed to tap them without permis
sion and without agreeing to pay a roy
alty on all petroleum extracted.
Objections.
Naturally Mexico objects to foreign
companies not only exhausting her nat
ural wealth which can never be re
placed, but also in controlling the
prices of oil, so that no one but them
selves will derive any profit from the
oil deposits.
Naturally Mexico resents seeing her
valuable mineral, timber and grazing
lands and fertile fields in the posses
sion of foreigners.
Naturally and justly Mexico resents
that the greater part of the wealth <
the country is in the hands of a few
foreigners, who are not willing to live
in Mexico, much less to become citizens
of that country.
A letter published in the “Sun,” July
20, 1919, said in part:
“Now as to the ‘victimizing’ of Amer
icans by Mexicans, does the gentleman
know that Mexico’s national wealth is
$7,000,000,000, and our little bunch of
Americans down there claim title to
$4,000,000,000 of it? It is unthinkable
that this handful of Americans could
have come into honest possession of
more than half of the wealth of the
country. They have not. They have
employed the most dishonest methods
to rob the Indians of their small hold
ings, on the war-path, it simply means
there is another land steal on. It is
the drama of Ramona being staged on
the other side of the Rio Grande. And
the Americans who have been engaged
in this nefarious business count among
their number the brother of one of our
ex-Presidents, a noted diplomat, and
other well-known folks.”
The Story of a Map.
In the propaganda against the pres
ent administration, Carranza and the
liberal party, there appeared a famous
or infamous map. This map has gained
such a notoriety that the perpetrators
of it are anxious to hush up the affair.
It was a map of Mexico, with nearly
half of the states purporting to be in
the control of the revolutionists in dark
colors. The map was published in
some newspapers and also was handed
around to members of Congress. It
was claimed to be the result of a thor
ough investigation by army officers
who had been appointed for that pur
pose, by a committee of Congress. The
map, however, fails to appear on the
records, and no one seems to know
much about it. One congressman, with
an inconvenient memory, said that he
had carefully looked and found the
map was properly signed by officers of
the army.
Naturally this propaganda of misrep
resentation showed too clearly the oil
tracks leading to congressional com
mittees and army officials, and spread
ing it out to the newspapers of the
country.
As Mexico Views It.
Mexico has taken this misrepresenta
tion rather seriously and one of the
periodicals published in the City ol
Mexico pertinently asks:
“If the enemies of the Carranza gov
ernment are so powerful and control
so much territory, how comes it that
they do not hold a single city or town,
and scarcely a village—except tempor
arily?
“How comes it that one and all are
merely wandering bandits, who cannot
be located long enough to allow of an
attack?
“How comes it, that if they have
such large and well-equipped ‘armies,
(larger than Carranza’s, according to
the map painter and his assistant, that
they have never yet fought a pitched
battle with the smaller government
forces —the attack on Juarez being the
only exception?
“How comes it that every state cap
ital and every state governor and his
government are in regular contact and
co-operation w r ith the Carranza govern
ment?
“How comes it that the Chamber of
Deputies is represented by regularly
elected members from every state in
the Republic?
“How comes it that every railway in
the republic is under the control of the
Carranza government and is in regular
operation, with the exception of a few
insignificant branch lines, and even
these are now being repaired and put
into condition for traffic?
“How comes it that not a foot of
railway in the entire republic is under
anything but Carranza control?
“How comes it that not a single port
on water or land is under any but Car
ranza control?
“How comes it that these same ‘reb
els’ who are supposed to ‘control’ fully
half of the republic, are not able to is
sue publications reciting the ‘facts’ of
their existence, except as they gull or
hire foreign papers to print them?
“And being without ports of entry,
without railroad communication, with
out any means of communication, ex
cept of the most sporadic kind, how
are these rebels able to obtain the vast
amount of ammunition, arms and sup
plies needed to keep their (paper)
armies in the field, and who pays for
it?”
A Complaint of the Oil Companies.
The oil companies complain that they
are not permitted to develop the oil
fields. Due to lack of oil steamers,
only about 20 per cent of the present
capacity of the wells is in operation;
however, the oil companies are anxious
to drive more wells, probably to drain
the territory surrounding their hold
ings, in spite of the fact that it will be
a long time before the companies will
have sufficient storage capacity or
transportation facilities to handle all
the oil wells can produce. Mr. Schiaf
fino, chief of the oil bureau of the De
partment of Industry, Commerce and
Labor, affirms:
“The Mexican government has al
lowed all the owners of productive oil
ARIZONA STATE MINER
wells to go on exploiting them freely,
for it has considered that if they did
drill such wells and these proved to be
productive, they are indeed entitled to
the oil springing from such wells, and
no case may be mentioned in which the
government ever pretended to expro
priate any of them. The decrees issued
only prescribe that in these cases the
nation must receive a royalty of 5 per
cent of the production, either in kind
or in currency.
“All the exploiters, absolutely all,
have continued disposing of the oil ex
tracted from the wells already drilled
after the new constitution was pro
claimed in 1917, and during all the time
when the decrees were issued regard
ing taxes on oil contracts and oil lands,
and not only that, but the department
has given them facilities to carry on an
intensive exploitation of their property
by granting them concessions to build
new oleoducts, refineries, terminal sta
tions, submarine pipe lines and every
thing needed for the broadest and most
profitable development of the indus
try.”
The subject of the oil situation over
in Mexico has been entered into rather
fully, and is the underlying cause of
the controversy and strained relations
between the two republics, although
the Jenkins case was ostensibly being
made the cause for intervention.
Happily the Mexican situation is now
in the hands of President Wilson, who
has been given full control therein by
Congress. The whole nation will look
with combined interest on the manner
in which differences are adjusted with
out prejudice—hoping for anything but
that which will embroil the two repub
lics in a disastrous war which will
breed hatred and distrust, already pro
mulgated by invisible financial control
of the American press.
Lightning Stole Lunch.
Lightning frequently acts the rob
ber with foodstuffs, and some extraor
dinary happenings have been recorded
from time to time. On one occasion
a party of tourists were preparing din
ner when suddenly and without warn
ing a storm arose, followed immedi
ately by vivid flashes of lightning. A
few seconds later not a trace of the
prepared meal was to be seen. The
dishes were strewn on the ground, but
all the bread, cheese and fruit had
vanished, while the bewildered tour
ists were covered from head to foot
with straw.
Laid Color on Thickly.
There were periods when even men
rouged. In the Eighteenth century
little attempt was made to imitate
nature’s coloring. The ladies “laid it
on thick” In round red spots, and
seemed to apply it, as they did patches,
to obtain a supposed decorative effect,
and to simulate the blush of nature.
The red and white they used, unlike
the modern cosmetics, were actually
poisonous, and there is record of more
than one lady of quality who died
from the effects of white lead.
Paul Verlaline.
Passion, wisdom, creative genius,
the power of mystery or color, it has
been wisely said, are allotted in the
hour of birth and can be neither as
similated nor learned. For good and
evil —for he was a mixture of evil and
good—Verlaine possessed all these
qualities. Verlaine is always faithful
to himself, to the two sides of himself,
and he has thus succeeded in render
ing as no one ever has before, the
whole home duplex, the eUrnal con
flict of humanity.—Arthur Symons.
Territory of Louisiana.
In 1800 on the first of October the
Spanish government by the treaty of
St. Udefonso, ceded the territory
known as Louisiana to France. The
territory had been a Spanish posses
sion for 38 years, originally ceded to
Spain by Louis XV. The return of
Louisiana to France was effected by
Napoleon, who contemplated forming
a colonial empire in America. After
three years he abandoned the scheme
and sold the territory to the United
States.
The Honor Code.
Those of us who would have our
days glide by peacefully should not
expect too much at the hands of others.
This is a strenuous age—indeed, al
most every minute of every hour is
all too crowded for the average person.
There is but one honor code to go by—
play fair. The girl or woman who does
so will have absolutely no regrets, and
will prove a real inspiration to others
around her. —New York Evening Tele
gram.
Deserved the Cookies.
Our neighbor’s small son was well
bred and he never asked for things to
eat at our house. The other day he
came into the kitchen just as I had
spread the last of a batch of cookies on
the table. The sight of so many and
their delicious smell almost overcame
his manners, for he said, “Cookies are
one thing that have never disagreed
with me yet.” He got the two largest
in the batch. —Chicago Tribune.
//*■- AM going to quit quitting,”
■ said a philosophic printer.
[_ “I’m going to swear off
swearing off. I’ve come to
the conclusion that a bad habit is
better than no habit at all. Every time
I’ve cut anything out in the past, I’ve
just stuck around on the edge of the
hole and mourned over the emptiness.
I always used to reform on the first of
January and backslide on the 15th.
This year, though, I played poker all
New Year’s night, just because I could;
and haven’t played it since, just be
cause I didn’t want to. If I make any
resolution this year, it will be some
thing I want to do, not something I
want to don’t.”
Technical consistency, however, will
not be universal.
“I’m resolved that I won’t trust no
body,” said the proprietor of a lunch
room. “I’m a good fellow and that’s
Says the Lunch Room Proprietor:
“I'm resolved that I won't trust no
body."
all I get out of It. Everybody likes to
eat in my place when it don’t cost
them nothing. Can they go to Smith
over there when they ain’t got no
money? Well, they can’t come here,
either. Where’s that Alec what I lent
a dollar to besides what he ate? Would
Smith give him a dollar, do you think?
No, he wouldn’t. He don’t trust no
body, Smith don’t.
“Who is the most disagreeable man
you know?” a patron asked him ten
minutes later.
“It’s that man Smith,” he replied.
“That man, why, he don’t trust no
body.”
Here is a formula worked out by a
young feminist:
“Resolved, That I will be more
selfish. I want to love my neighbor as
myself. If I don’t love myself, the re
sult would be disastrous.
“That I will be more self-centered.
My consciousness must be centered
somewhere; if it is not centered on
myself, it is apt to be centered on
some one else. If the other person
could be kept under my control, the re
sult would be slavery; If he could not,
it would be agony.
“That I will be myself, even if I get
married. I will be Somebody and not
Says the Young Feminist: “Re
solved: that I will be more selfish—
more self-centered.”
Mrs. Somebody, positively not Some
body’s rib. I will live, not in self-sac
rifice but in self-attainment; I will seek
friends, not in self-forgetfulness but
in the full appreciation of my social
self; I will love, not in self-denial but
in self-expression.”
PROVERBS THAT FIT SEASON
Many Have Highly Important Bearing
on Vital Issues Which the
World Is Facing.
Many a proverb has a special bear
ing on the issues with w T hich we shall
have to deal during the coming year.
Thus, as bearing on the vital Issues
of the peace settlement our ancestral
philosophers, proverb makers, remind
us:
We should consult three things In
all our actions —justice, honesty and
utility.
Justice Is the rightful sovereign of
the world.
Charity excuseth not cheating.
It is cruelty to the innocent not to
punish the guilty.
Peace flourishes when reason rules.
What is Just and right is the law
of laws.
Avarice and fidelity cannot dwell to
gether in the same house.
Human blood is all one color.
They that command the most enjoy
themselves the least.
“I’m going to be less vain, less hum
ble, less contrite and less self-right
eous,” was the enigmatical statement
of a more mature woman, one who is
looked upon by many as an ideal wife
and mother.
“Don’t you know,” she explained,
“that vanity and humility are just dif
ferent phases of the same disease?
And remorse and self-righteousness are
almost identical. The girl whose mind
is filled with thoughts of how stun
ning she is is simply crushed when she
fails to stun. The man who exagger
ates the importance of his own virtues
is always the loudest mourner on the
bench when he is ‘convicted of sin.’
“Oh, yes,” she added, “I want my
children to be good, but I don’t want
them to make a business of it. Be
cause then, if they’re bad, they’d be
sure to make a business of that. The
woman who told her son: ‘Johnny,
don’t go outdoors, but if you do go out,
put on your overcoat.’ was a pretty
good philosopher.”
“I’m going to economize and begin
smoking,” was the brilliant decision of
a newspaper man. “I haven’t smoked
for three months,” he said, “and it’s
Says the Newspaper Man: “I
haven't smoked for three months and
it's getting expensive. I'm going to
economize and begin smoking.”
getting expensive. Where I used to
spend an evening with a pipe and a
book, I have to go out now and find a
game of Kelly pool. Going without to
bacco has its advantages, I admit, but
unless I get a raise in salary, I can’t
afford to continue the fight against
Miss Nicotine.”
“I’m not going to make any resolu
tions,” said a serious-minded humorist.
“I might make some if I knew just
what to make; but I’m past forty now
and haven’t the slightest idea whether
I suit myself or not. My acquaint
ances seem to like me, but so few of
them know me, and I’m sure I don’t
want to be the kind of a man they
think I am. I think I’ll open up a little
more; make my whole life an open
book, not try to be agreeable or disa
greeable, but just to do what I want
to do and say what I want to say, re
gardless of anybody’s prejudices and
opinions. I might eventually get a gen
uine appraisal of myself, something to
base any proposed changes upon.
“No, I couldn’t either,” he added
sadly. “Everybody would laugh and
say that I was funnier than ever.”
He who devours the substance of the
poor will find at length a bone to
choke him.
Distrust is poison to friendship.
None so despicable as those who de
spise others.
There can be no friendship where
there is no freedom.
That is the best government in which
an injury to one is the concern of all.
Our personal activities In the critic
al year of 1920, the policy each of us
should adopt, and the good of the na
tion —regarding this also we may learn
not a little from the collective experi
ence of the race as voiced In proverbs:
Produce much, consume little, labor
diligently, speak courteously..
A handful of common sense is worth
a bushel of learning.
The charitable give out at the door,
and God puts in at the window.
Well doing is the best capital.
To be of use in the world is the
only way to be happy.
Space commands me to stop. But
read through these proverbs once more,
and ponder their helpfulness as coun
sel for the coming year.—H. Adding
ton Bruce In Chicago Daily News.