Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/119

Rh with other valuable privileges in addition. Possibly this erroneous impression may be traced in the first place to the translation of the Spanish word "concesión," which means merely a franchise or a permit to do business, as the equivalent of the English word "concession," which means something quite different.

After the discovery of oil in paying quantities by Mr. Doheny and his associates the attention of other large oil interests was attracted to the Mexican field and in due time the Standard Oil Company, the Waters-Pierce Company, and the English interests represented by Lord Cowdray, as well as other less important organizations, secured territory in the oil fields by purchase or lease and commenced the production of petroleum. Not in one instance, however, did any American company secure any part of its oil territory as a grant, gift, or concession from the Mexican Government, although the contrary has been asserted in numberless false-propaganda pamphlets and articles that have been distributed by the Mexican revolutionists in this country.

Much of the oil territory still belongs to Mexican citizens and is being operated by various companies under leases from the land owners, just as hundreds of thousands of acres of oil land belonging to farmers have been operated under leases providing for stipulated royalty payments in the