With its shipping interests it is in position to pay dividends upon its common stock without waiting for dividends upon Mexican Petroleum common. It will thus be seen that the investment basis in this combined oil enterprise is in Pan-American and the speculation is in Mexican Petroleum. Indeed, it is figured that for Mexican Petroleum to pay more dividends than Pan-American, Pan-American must first pay sixteen per cent, or eight dollars upon its fifty-dollar shares. There is present expectation that Pan-American will begin dividends upon its common stock this year. The Pan-American Company has three sources of revenue and the Mexican Petroleum Company substantially one.
THE PAN-AMERICAN COMPANY IN CALIFORNIA
In southern California gasolene is used with great liberality. The broad state highways and asphaltum roads invite it. To visit the Bell Ranch of the Pan-American Company I took a little motor trip of two hundred and sixty-five miles, going from Los Angeles to Los Alamos, which is on the Bell Ranch property, and back to Santa Barbara in a day. I learned that four hundred-mile motor trips for a single day were not uncommon in southern California. The
