be dredged constantly to enable the ocean-going liners to reach the docks. Throughout the revolution all oil companies have been paying six cents a barrel bar tax to keep the river deep enough for their ships, but for nearly four years little dredging has been done.
A few months ago the central government notified the oil companies that an American dredging concern had been engaged to work in the river and that the oil companies would have to pay the costs, amounting to one hundred thousand dollars a month.
With conditions so unsettled and dangers lurking in every business deal the oil companies today are doing no development work. They are taking no chances. They believe that Article Twenty-seven of the Mexican Constitution permits the government to confiscate their property and they declare that they cannot afford to spend more money in Tampico until they know how the government intends to interpret this.
The companies are literally between the jungle and the sea. No one knows what move the Carranza Government may make. No one knows what steps the United States and the Allies will take to protect the oil country if the central government begins an invasion, as President Carranza announced it would do, in his speech before Congress on September 3, 1917. At the opening of Parliament he proclaimed his intention of driving the rebels out of the oil fields. "They have been
