Tampico was a cattle shipping point with less than twenty thousand people when he began operations there. To-day it has a population of fifty thousand, and wages that were twelve and one-half cents are now one dollar for ordinary labor and three dollars and fifty cents gold for skilled labor. When in June, 1916, nine hundred refugees were taken from Tampico on two tank steamers and the yacht Casiana, the expense was sixty-seven thousand dollars and the American government offered to repay, but Doheny refused to accept. From October 14, 1915, until April 15, 1916, there was famine in that land for the native population. The warring forces had taken all the food out of the country and sent it to Vera Cruz, whence it had been shipped to Texas and sold for war supplies.
Doheny bought it in Texas and shipped it back in the same packages to Tampico and fed the native Mexicans with it so far as the American consul certified they had need for food.
Doheny is a delver in statistics, and these ground him in his faith in the great future for oil in the uses of the world. He believes that the time will arrive when coal locomotives can be used profitably only in the coal regions. It has been demonstrated that an oil-burning engine
