San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-11
sC0L. DAV|LA
!. PUT PORT IN
RIGHT ORDER
Displays Executive Ability
in Strengthening
- Out "Mess."
FRIEND OF OIL MEN
Born in Mexico But Received
Education in San
TAI Antonio.
FRIEND OF OIL MEN

Tampico, Mex, Feb. 1O.-"The most
!, conscientious public official in the pc
stroleum industry is the reputation
Z gained by Col. Rafael Davis Dayila,
I, formerly of San Antonio and command
:. ant of the custom service at the port
of Tampico since April, 1922. At the
time he took charge OF the customs, the
fiscal wharf was being described by oil
men as the most internal mess in ex-
: istence." Material for drilling, for pipe
4 lines, refineries and terminals had been
>Accumulating for two years. 1t had
: been unloaded on the wharf, 30 the in
/; voices said. Steamship companies
showed clearance papers. 1t was a case
of try and get it"
For more than two years companies
. operating in the oil industry had been
handicapped by inability to get their
badly needed material cleared. Mer-
chants in Tampico and the surrounding
country who had goods shipped in by
water were in the same predicament.
J They knew their supplies were on the
wharf and when finally obtained, there
was q shortage in practically every case.
A needed part would be missing from a
special machine a 5000 barrel steel
! tank would be complete except a bundle
of bottom plates a case of hams would
. be filled with q choice assortment OF
bricks; only shoes for the left foot
would be found in the boxes, and re-
markable bargains could be picked up
from strangers who approached one on
: the streets of the city.
y Strengthened Port Out.
Then Davila came. This was in
April There was no apparent change
as the days rolled into weeks and hopes
that had been raised with the change
dropped. Purchasing agents and mate
rial men groaned for there seemed no
Likelihood that new man could
straighten up the confusion. About the
middle of May, long lost material began
TO emerge and notification as being re-
ceived by various companies to send
for their goods. New deliveries from
the states were cleared within a few
days, and gradually the great piles OF
weather beaten cases and loose ma
chinery, which had become to be land
marks, vanished.
Dayila soon became known to prac-
tically every company and merchant in
Tampico who received goods by the
water route. Courteous. cool amid the
confusion of huge harbor and accessi-
Die 10 VlSltOrS at all times, ne DeCdHle
a marked man in a position where lack
of ability and Discrimination to aid had
been paramount. Since he has taken
command, he has handled $500 vessels,
including tankers and cargo ships. He
has 300 men in his command of whom
80 are on duty at the 90 two oil COM
pany terminals in his jurisdiction.
Twenty.four men check incoming aud
outgoing freight; 80 work inside the
customs warehouse and the balance are
on general worh.
Educated in San Antonio.
Rafael Davis Davila was born In
Piedres Negras in 1887. In 1896, his
father, Edward Davila, a lawyer, moved
70 San Antonio, where the younghter
entered the South Flores school. Later
be took course at the Alamo City
Commercial College and upon gradua-
ton, worked in San Antonio and Hous-
ton until 1910, when he returned to the
place Of his birth. He accepted a posi-
ton in the shops Of the National Rail
way Lines, with whom he remained
until 1916, except for intervals during
which he was engaged in military duty
with the Madero forces.
In 1916; he moved to Mexico City,
becoming assistant chief of staff to