Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/107

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GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO
87

A Carranza soldier, he said, emptied his automatic into the side of the trooper and then shoved the pistol into the wound. When the remaining two were captured they were executed.

The general told almost unbelievable tales. He said the wild Indians in a war dance, a few days before he arrived, had thrown women into the flames as sacrifices. This is the Liberty, Justice and Law of the oil jungle!

For the benefit of the auto owner who, like myself, did not know how gasoline is produced, permit me to make this explanation: The crude oil as it comes from the earth is pumped to Tampico, where the refineries are located. Some is shipped to refineries in the United States. This oil is heated in large tanks to three hundred and fifty degrees. From these tanks it flows into cooling tanks; the heavy oil goes to the bottom and the vapour, or gasoline, flows out near the top. Gasoline is but the light ingredient of heavy mineral oil.

When the crude oil reaches Tampico the trouble begins. The Mexican Government taxes crude oil, gasoline, distillate and other by-products so heavily and the expenses of shipping it to England and the United States are so great that crude oil which costs twenty cents a barrel in Tampico must sell for sixty cents a barrel in Texas.

All the oil ships in and out of Tampico must go through the Pánuco River, which flows into the gulf seven miles from the city. The river must