116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ALBANY MEETING 



strongly attached. ITis administration was proving a great success and 

 his geologic studies were by no means entirely set aside. He still per- 

 sonally directed the geologic surveys, and often stole away from the office 

 drudgery to visit the geologic and drilling field parties. Then came the 

 cloud of the Mexican revolution, which became deeper as time went on, 

 and had it not been for his personal efforts this would have wrecked the 

 enterprise in his charge. In February, 1913, he writes: 



"You are undoubtedly far better informed than are we as to what is goinc: 

 on in Mexico. At present we are entirely cut off from mail and practically 

 from telegraphic communication. It does not seem possible for existing con- 

 ditions to continue indefinitely, and they could not be much worse, so they 

 must improve. In Tampico everything is quiet, and we apprehend no serious 

 trouble so long as a warship is anchored outside. The men in the camps are, 

 however, getting very uneasy, and I doubt if they can be held at their tasks 

 much longer. . . . We are employing about 3,000 native laborers in this 

 district, and we are afraid to stop the work, since each one is a potential revo- 

 lutionist, and he can be kept from revolting onlj^ by a good job. In the mean- 

 time money is getting short, for we can't draw on Mexico City. ... 1 

 haven't heard a word from there in ten days, and as our office is directly in 

 line of fire between the federal and rebel positions, I fear it is in bad fix. 

 . . . Aside from the political troubles, everything is going well. We have 

 brought our oil shipments up to nearly a million barrels a month and expect 

 to soon increase that." 



Ten months later he writes again : 



"The oil fields seem to have occupied the center of the stage for the past 

 month, and I can imagine the kind of news your papers have been serving up. 

 It has been bad enough, but not as serious as reported. We have managed to 

 keep things running most of the time, though having a thousand rebels in our 

 camps for nearly a month did not add much to the efficiency of the various 

 operations. ... I have put the big well in such shape as to defy the whole 

 i-ebel army. The controlling valves are covered with a concrete structure six 

 feet or more thick. . . . The three days' fighting around Tampico were 

 somewhat exciting. From the top of our office building the whole battlefield 

 could be seen. We saw the charges and the counter-charges very clearly. I 

 rode over the field Sunday and counted nearly a hundred bodies still unburied. 

 . . . About 350 foreigners took refuge in our office building when the town 

 was attacked. . . . We had the building barricaded with sand bags, armed 

 guards posted, and all preparations made to stand off the mob and the rebels." 



Under the modest "we'' Hayes veils the fact that he was the command- 

 ing personality in the whole situation. As an American at the head of 

 an English company, the largest in the district, operating in a country 

 torn by revolution, his was a position requiring the greatest tact and 

 strained to the utmost his executive ability. In spite of the turmoil, oper- 



