The World Struggle

Oil, bulwark of international capitalism, chief stake of diplomacy in backward countries, cause of war, seems destined to become more and more the great motivating factor of American foreign policy. Free competition has long since been abolished, and the struggle for wells, spheres of exploitation, areas of monopoly, and markets is becoming more bitter and more fraught with intrigue, discrimination, tariffs, and embargoes.

The latest move being made by the United States to prevent the spread of foreign control in American fields is the denial of oil land lease assignments to the Roxana Petroleum Corporation. This ostensibly American company, all of whose stock is owned by a Delaware corporation, is in reality under foreign control, since a majority of the voting stock of the holding company is, in turn, owned by the Royal Dutch-Shell combine. The Roxana Company is shut out of lease-holds by the leasing law of 1920, which provides that " citizens of another country, the laws, customs, or regulations of which deny similar or like privileges to citizens or corporations of this country, shall not by stock ownership, stock holdings, or stock control, own any interest in any lease acquired under the provisions of this act." The Federal Trade Commission, which undertook an exhaustive investigation of the international oil situation, reports that foreign oil corporations, such as the Royal Dutch-Shell group, the Anglo-Persian, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, and several French combines, have systematically discriminated against American oil companies in Mesopotamia, the Dutch East Indies, Persia, and the other great spheres of French, British, and Dutch influence. Therefore, the United States will deny the right of free competition in this country.

Pointing to the menace of foreign penetration into United States oil fields, the Federal Trade Commission cites the Royal Dutch-Shell group as having acquired ownership of 11% of the world's production and 3.5% of specifically American production. The American companies named as being under foreign domination include the Union Oil Company (Delaware), the Union Oil Company (California), and the Shell Company (California). These together control over 240,950 acres of oil lands in the United States, including extensive properties in refineries, pipe lines, tank cars, and marketing equipment.