and with the high porosity in the "reefs" every oil land owner would have to quickly drill his boundaries for self-protection.;
A few gushers might be in position to sell their oil to a pipe line at three cents a barrel and make a million a year. It would be a wicked world-waste. The Tampico oil fields could equal the total production of the United States on about forty-eight hours' notice of facilities for storing the product.
But Mexico, politically unsettled, with only two pipe lines in operation, has her oil wealth conserved, and Lord Cowdray can report to the English shareholders of the Mexican Eagle Company that earnings are ten million dollars per annum Mexican gold, or five million dollars per annum United States gold; and the Mexican Petroleum Company can report to its American shareholders net earnings of about the same amount— six millions for the $39,000,000 common stock the past year.
THE SHUT-IN EARS
Always hoping for the best, I can see possible benefits arising from the "shut-in" policy for Mexico— the shutting-in of its oil wells and the shutting-in of the ears of President Wilson to
