Evening star., 1935-09-05
STANDARD OIL Co.
TACT IS LAUDED
Extricated State Depart.
nent From TickIiSh Ethio-
plan Complications.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

By DAVID LAWhENCE.
Looked at from one viewpoint, Sec
retary Hull was a persuasive spokes-
man for the United States Govern
ment when the Standard-Vacuum Oil
CO. announced the abandonment OF
its Ethiopian oil concession, but, looked
at from another viewpoint, the Stand
ard Oil Co. extricated the Department
Of State from a ticklish position.
The truth is enlightened American
business deserves a bouquet for what
happened and the incident ought to
be emphasized because the tendency
Of the demagogues Is to assert always
that business is selfish proposition
with no humanitarian instincts or
patriotic purposes.
Strictly speaking, the Standard Oil
Vacuum Co. had a right to the con-
cession it obtained. There is no law
of the United States forbidding 1t
and international law from time i'm
memorial has supported the principle
that the citizens Of government have
a right to invest their savings in
foreign lands and to be protected so
long as they obey the domestic law
there.
Precedent May Plague U. S.
indeed, the precedent which has
been set up in the case of the Ethio-
plan concession may rise to plague
the United States Government some
day in the matter Of protecting Amer
lean rights abroad, and it is matter
Of considerable surprise that the
usually careful lawyers Of the De-
partment of State didn't take occa-
sion to differentiate this particular
incident from others that might arise
in which the American Government
would wish to extend the full measure
of its diplomatic protection.
There was hint of a change Of
policy when President Roosevelt told
the correspondents at Hyde Park on
Wednesday that dollar diplomacy
was at an end, thus implying perhaps
that the Department of State might
be on the verge of going to the other
extreme of scuttling American inter-
estS abroad.
DOA4dl NlRAOAAlnSy Woo q PAAAooS e%o
sociated 20 and 80 years ago with
exploitation of foreign countries by
American capital, but 1t was not al
ways true that the exploitation" was
one-sided affair. In fact, the Gen.
tral and South American countries
which received the benefit Of Ameri-
can investment would never have at
tanned their present stage of economic
progress without American and for
eign capital investments.
Negotiations Of Long Standing.
In the present case the granting Of
q concession by Ethiopia came as a
result of negotiations begun by the
Standard Vacuum Co. long before the
crisis in Ethiopia's affairs became
acute. But the impression formed by
American public opinion as a conse-
quence Of the cable dispatches was
that the Ethiopian Emperor. in sheer
desperation, had suddenly consum-
mated the transaction in the hope OF
Involving the American Government.
.The concession may or may not
have grown out Of such a conspiracy
in the mind of the Ethiopian mon
arch and, so far as the American COM
pauy was concerned, it was engaged
in a legitimate business and had just
as much right to enter into the ar
rangement as Premier Mussolini has
a right to buy a large quantity of
canned foods in the United States to
feed his troops.
The State Department, therefore,
was ION the spot" when the concession
was announced. Its legal position had
to be one of protecting an American
right, or at least of doing nothing to
interfere with the exercise OF that
right.
Laid Cards on Table.
Out of a clear sky, however, re-
sponsible officials of the American
concern went to Washington, laid all
the cards on the table, told Secretary
of State Hull that the good will Of the
American Government and American
public opinion meant more than a
hundred concessions in Ethiopia, or
words to that effect, and that the
Standard-Vacuum was ready to do
whatever the State Department wanted
done.
The announcement Of the termina-
ton of the concession came after Sec
retary Hull had explained the delicate
implications of the incident, particu-
larly as the League of Nations at
Geneva was struggling with the prob
lem at the moment. So the credit for
the avoidance Of grave diplomatic
episode in American neutrality, at q
time of rapidly growing international
situation that may lead to bloodshed,
belongs, on the one hand, to sem
sible American corporation and like
wise to Department of State. which
has saved itself from embarrassing
complications with other American
companies that might wish to obtain
the protection of their Government on
concessions under other circumstances.
(Copyright. 1880