The reason for it all was the three-cornered fight which then was being waged by the Government, the Nitrate Trust, and the Walker- Keefe crowd for the possession of the nitrate beds. Valencia is so near to the equator and so far from New York, that there are few who studied the intricate story of that disgraceful struggle, which, I hasten to add, with the fear of libel before my eyes, I do not intend to tell now.