One day, to the great astonishment of everybody interested in the American oil industry, Mr. Deterding brought a cargo of oil to the United States and sold it under the very nose of the directors of the _Standard Oil_. Emboldened by this first success, he tried to establish himself in the United States, and with this aim in view bought oil-bearing properties in Oklahoma. The _Royal Dutch_ rapidly increased its territory. By a bold policy and without recourse to the sharp practices of the directors of the _Standard Oil_, Deterding revenged himself for the attack upon him in the Far East. The _Royal Dutch_ sent large quantities of petrol to America and sold them at rates as high as those of the _Standard_. This enabled it to make good its losses in the Old World and to emerge victorious from the struggle. During his Chinese campaign Deterding had been handicapped by the inferiority of the oil from Borneo. To remedy this he proposed to obtain possession of various Californian wells. Of all the wars that Deterding has waged, that of California is the most interesting and perhaps the most strenuous. It required a remarkable audacity for the _Royal Dutch_ to establish itself on the very territory of the _Standard_ in America. Would it not meet there the coalition of this great firm and the independent oil companies? And yet Deterding triumphed. He created the _Roxana Petroleum Company_ in Oklahoma, the _Shell Company of California_ on the shores of the Pacific, and then extended his conquests to Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Dakota and Nevada. Everywhere the _Royal Dutch_ brings with it its curious methods. It begins by taking an option for six months on an oil bearing property, giving it the right to examine the books of the company and to make an inquiry. At the end of six months it takes an option on another property, and continues in this way throughout the region. After leaving nearly all the options without sequel, the _Royal Dutch_ is ready to begin boring operations on its own account in selected places. This method, adopted for the first time in California, is to-day the _habitual method_ of the _Royal Dutch-Shell_. Thus this company rarely makes miscalculations in the oil-fields it exploits. Its agents have orders to report the minutest details to head-quarters. In order to interest the American public in the success of his enterprise, Deterding was clever enough to place upon the New York market, in 1916, 220,000 so-called American shares. This issue was a great success, and it has thus become against the interest of many Yankees for the United States Government to start reprisals against the _Royal Dutch_, of which the late President Harding has often spoken.