Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/111

Rh had not been chemically combined and the fraud was easily detectable.

Mexican asphaltum had no value and Mexican oils as first discovered and analyzed were largely Mexican pitch or asphalt and were officially declared good for neither kerosene nor gasolene. It was with difficulty that the railways of Mexico could be induced to change their engines from high-priced coal to cheap Mexican fuel oil.

When farther south the gasolene values of Mexican oils were proven, the compound was shown to be just another new one of Mother Earth with the gasolene and sulphur more detached. When the day of the oil gusher arrived, one can only conjecture the result to the world had there been tranquillity in Mexico and capital and shipping easily available. It might have been the story over again of "ten thousand tons of gold" to be dumped into the ocean to save the investment base of the world.

To-day there is a proven daily capacity of one-million barrels of oil between Tampico and Mexico City and there are neither pipe lines nor ships to take away one-sixth of it. A year's drilling would multiply the present drilled capacity,