GODFATHERING OIL

The Margaine project for a national oil monopoly in France, recently approved by the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, has aroused a storm of protest from American oil interests. Concerned over the uncertain fate of their receiving and the distributing stations in which twenty million dollars have been invested, the Americans have characteristically appealed to the United States government.

Never, evidently has it occurred to American commercial interests abroad that they must stand upon their own managerial feet as private concerns as they long have been able to do at home. With a constant vision of official intervention in case of a difficulty they forget they are regulated by the laws of the country in which their activities lie. And this dependence is not without reason as past experiences have so admirably demonstrated. Aid has over been readily forthcoming. A squadron of destroyers can be relied upon to turn up pleasantly in an obstreperous foreign port or an corrective note may be dutifully dispatched to Mexico at oil's behest. Occasionally these acts are justified; often of dubious propriety. At all events the inevitable cut to take from this motherly care is to expect more pampering, even in France where the docility of a Siberia is hardly operative.

Obviously it is utterly beyond the province of our government in this present instance to interfere with French legislation. A bumptious meddling in her affairs would be signally out of place. It is encouraging to note that at this time the state department will act in none other but an advisory capacity. Consequently American foreign trade may be taught a much needed lesson in self-reliance.