Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/189

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STANDING BY
131

for the Pan-American, Mr. Doheny will have opened up eight oil fields in California.

STANDING BY

From the Fullerton and other districts in California he got the money to make his start in Mexico, where at the beginning he had only an eight per cent interest, but assessments of $750,000 from 1902 to 1905 did not trouble him. When the Texas oil gushers made Mexican oil practically worthless for a few months, Doheny stood by, just as Rockefeller did in Cleveland, and bought when nobody else would buy, believing that the future would demonstrate the values. Doheny's Mexican Petroleum interest went up to nearly forty per cent as his associates sold out.

Doheny has always stood by. In the panic of 1907 he kept millions on deposit that his properties might be protected against any accident. Five years ago he disposed of some properties for more than $10,000,000, and half of the money went into Mexican Petroleum. I don't think that he values his Mexican interests financially as high as his California interests, but the social problem in Mexico interests him more and takes greatest hold upon his sympathies.