Thus is the gold which flows from the oil wells dynamically active--as a poison and a weapon against those who create it. The oil companies of themselves take no part in Mexican politics. This, I admit, is almost unbelievable, but I am convinced that except where government--our government or that of England--has directed them, the oil companies have not used their power politically. The United States and England have both taken hands in Mexican politics, and particularly was Washington active in arbitrating the destinies of Mexico in the eight years just closed. But that does not concern us just now. The liquid gold from the oil fields has never used its power alone. It has not yet used its power for its great possible good, either. Not even for so much good as the International Harvester and the Eric corporation have used theirs in Yucatan to the discomfiture of Alvarado and the chastening of the henequen industry. Never, for the sake of a principle alone, has an oily hand been lifted to say “thus far and no farther.” Never has an oil official done more than cry aloud over the pressure of the thumb-screws--cries which do no more than extract more wealth to fatten the generals who, with added strength, only gave the screw another turn. For seven years the oil companies paid the rebel general, Manuel Pelaez, a comfortable tribute. In that time they also paid Carranza all he asked in “taxes.” They were helpless, and the war was the excuse, not for strength on their part, but for submission to unwarranted and unjust oppression, oppression which had no object save personal aggrandizement and enrichment. Here is the one power in Mexico which is potent, accepting the rule of corrupt government, passing on its power of gold to those who use it for nothing but their own ends, and for the destruction of all that our civilization holds dear. They buy privilege in Mexico, the privilege to do the business which they must do, while the sinister powers to whom they pay tribute cut them from the development of new fields upon which their ultimate future and Mexico’s immediate future depend. The whole power of Mexican revolution and of the groups which control the revolution lies in that one principle which I have reiterated: they give no rights, they sell no rights; only privilege is on the auction-block. Those who buy it to-day and those who contemplate the buying of it as a way to enter a promising foreign trade and investment field are the upholders of the shameful exploitation under which Mexico herself bows. And of these, the greater sinner, to my mind, is he who plans to enter Mexico now. After all, we must in fairness admit that the old companies have the potent excuse of their vast holdings and of their duty to their stockholders.