THE SMELL OF OIL
The Smell Of Oil THE STENCH of oil is becoming daily more oppressive in Washington. Consider these developments of the past month: 1Rep. Jerry Voorhis, California Democrat and ? a warm friend of...
...Louis circuit court last week by Frank J. Boehm that the North American Company has used a $5,000,000 slush fund to influence elections on a "nation-wide scale" emphasize again the urgent need for an exhaustive Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the affairs of that powerful utility empire...
...Louis of which Boehm was once a $54,000-a-year vice president, was convicted of corrupt practices, Boehm and other employes of Union Electric charged with the distribution of its slush fund testified that North American officials knew and approved of the crooked dealings...
...The Causes Of War (From Worldover Press) Said William B. Ziff, author of the forthcoming book, The Gentlemen Talk of Peace, when speaking on a recent radio forum: "It is a fallacy to believe that by the application of unlimited force peace can be insured...
...The commendable refusal of Congress to torpedo the Contract Renegotiation Law has prevented a major break in the weak enough dam against war profiteering...
...tighten their control over one of the most indispensable requirements of our modern machine economy...
...Indeed, Laun declared under oath that he had been assured by a North American public relations expert that there was no danger in the SEC inquiry because "he [the public relations expert] knew someone on the SEC and that he had kept one man out of jail and had a key to the White House...
...Nearly $1,500,000,000 of the $4,747,176,000 would have escaped taxation and remained with the profiteering corporations, according to the Price Adjustment Board of the Army and Navy...
...The NAM's argument that the excess profits would be recaptured by the government under the tax laws is only partly true...
...It will also be recalled that Albert C. Laun, former lobbyist for the St...
...That the dam itself needs to be strengthened was apparent from the recent testimony of Comptroller General Lindsay Warren that a study of 2,000 war contracts showed incredibly "rotten" conditions...
...The Truman Committee has been investigating the Cariol -scandal...
...If these are samples of what is yet to be paid out, then I say, God help the people of the United States," exclaimed the Comptroller General...
...It will not prevent any war...
...Now that the charges have been renewed as the basis of a $24,000,000 damage suit by a man who for many years was in a position to know the practices carried on by his superiors, it is time for the SEC to investigate...
...They do not relate to police power...
...Louis subsidiary, testified that he, Boehm, and others who were under SEC fire were advised to perjure themselves by North American officials and attorneys...
...If it fails this time, Congress should move to investigate the SEC's failure to act...
...It is time to tear aside the curtain and let the people know if buccaneering private interests, working often with government officials, are reaching out to...
...Police power did not prevent Southern Ireland and the American Colonies from breaking away from Britain...
...The SEC Has A Job CHARGES contained in the petition filed in the the St...
...Sen...
...The causes of revolution and war are moral and economic...
...About half the amount represents price reductions obtained by the government and the other half money recaptured as excess profits after payment had been made...
...It will be remembered that two years ago when the North American subsidiary, the Union Electric Company of St...
...God Help The People' SOME IDEA of the rich pickings the National Association of Manufacturers had its eye on when it sought to have Congress scuttle the Contract Renegotiation Law can be gained from a recent government report showing that the law had eliminated war profits of $4,747,176,000 up to Sept...
...2Secretary Ickes, in his turn, charged that the ? War Department was wasting $130,000,000 in its "Canol" (Canadian Oil) development in the wilds of Northern Canada, and asserted that the only beneficiaries of this expenditure of millions of American tax dollars would be the Canadian government and the Imperial Oil Company, Canadian subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey...
...Voorhis was demanding the answer to a supremely important question when he asked: "Are we now witnessing, without any substantial protest on our»part, the complete cartel-ization of the oil industry of America, under government sanction...
...It has learned that the $130,-000,000 project was launched by the Army without consulting the War Production Board or the Petroleum Administration, and that when civilian officials of government learned of the plan and asked for information, the Army brass hats invoked the traditional method of concealing stupid and wasteful acts by claiming "military secrecy...
...Jerry Voorhis, California Democrat and ? a warm friend of the Roosevelt Administration, charged in the House of Representatives that Petroleum Directive 70, issued by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, gave the representatives of the big oil companies "the greatest charter of power ever given to a group of essentially private citizens, directly connected with the mpst powerful natural resource monopoly the world has ever known, over the most vital single resource there is...
...Despite the seriousness of the charges made by Laun, Boehm, and others "on the inside" during the Union Electric trial there is no indication that the SEC ever undertook an investigation...
...3Meanwhile, Secretary of the Navy Frank ? Knox continued to defy leading members of Congress and the Justice Department by negotiating a new contract with Standard Oil of California for private exploitation of the rich oil reserves of Elk Hills, Calif...
...The alert Rep...
...It did not prevent the Russian Revolution...
...Truman and his associates should broaden their inquiry to include all the recent developments in petroleum...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 49
