Albuquerque morning journal., 1913-11-15
MEXICO MINERAL
WEALTH CAUSE
OF TROUBLE
Oil Holdings Are Declared to
Be Bo0eof Contention Among
Opposing Interests Repre-
Senting Outside Capital,

SPECIAL eoREgsroEngpcr TO soENiHc JOURNAL
Philadelphia, Nov. t4.-Officers
and agents Of Mexican oil and min
ing companies, with offices in this city,
say that President Wilson blundered
lin not recognizing Huerta's govern
ment, and that Intervention on the
part of the United States would re-
suit In falling into a trap set by great
oil interests, which In turn have
financed the causes Of successive rev.
.olutionists in return for concessions.
The entire emhroglio from the end
.of the Diaz administration to the pres
ent, these men say, has been a strug-
gle for control by the Mexican Eagle
company, the Pearson interests, of
which Lord Cowdray, Of England Is
the head and the Waters-Pierce SYM
dicate. Behind the Pearson interests
stands the British government. which
recently gave large order Of fuel oil
for the English navy.
Although }. I. c. Clarke. OF the
Rockefeller companies. recently de-
MED that the Standard oil company
had any interests In the Mexican oil
fields, yet heads Of oil companies here
say the Waters-Pierce syndicate has
generally been understood to repre-
sent the Standard
Speaking Of the political troubles Of
the neighhorlng republic, +. Straith
Miller. of the Mexican National OH
company who recently returned from
survey Of the concerns fields, said:
Mexico has an enormous oil de-
posit While most OF the product is
of lower grade than that found in the
United states. yet some wells are pro-
ducing petroleum equal to that found
in Pennsylvania, but all Of it is highly
priced as fuel This very source Of
wealth can be said TO be the chief
cause Of the present difficulties. The
struggle for control between the great
oil corporations is intense. These are
the powers behind the throne. In
view of this Il seems TO me that Presi-
don't Wilson has made a serious mis-
take in attempting to say who shall
be president or who shall not be nj the
head of the goyernment To favor
either side is simply to help one or
the other of these great syndicates,'
Mr. Miller's sentiments were voiced
by officers of other oil concerns, who
said that in Carranza the country
would not likely have any improve
ment over Huerta
That tho British government is
playing a large part i'm the situation
is The belief Of oil field owners here.
In support of this they produced a
recent speech Of winston Churchill
first lord Of the admiralty in which
among other things he said
THE admiralty considers it indis-
pensable TO the proper solution of the
question cf oil supply to make con-
tract with the Mexican Eagle com
pany. This is the company directed
by Lord Cowdray and with which
Lord Murray is connected. II is also
the greatest English controlled oil
company in the world and one of the
few comparatively great oil corpora
tions. The contract is one extremely
advantageous to the navy. The Mexi-
can supplies Of oil are abundant and
cannot be neglected by the admiralty -
J. Rothschild of the Ampara Min
ing company which is operating COLO
and silver mines in the central sec
ton of Mexico, likewise believes Pres
ident Wilson has orred in his policy
toward Mexico He said.
zone Mexican politician is as good
as another and can be trusted about
as far, which is not very far Dis
placing Huerta will not help to solve
the Mexican situation. Undoubtedly
the revolutions have been due to the
wish to get oil concessions and get
them with little cost, but that is only
part Of the story The great mass
of the Mexican people are densely ig-
norant. Nothing but an educational
movement of nationwide character
can give that country stalle govern
ment and that will take from thirty to
forty years.
Banditsi and not revolutionists, MI
Rothschld said, are the bane Of Mex
lean development.