OIL FOR THE WHEELS OF MONOPOLY
McMillin, Miles
The Cooperative Movemenf: Oil For The Wheels Of Monopoly By MILES McMILLIN AS the Washington representative of the Cooperative League of the U. S. A. John Carson has to be constantly on the alert...
...more than 100 PAW officials are taken from payrolls of companies in the oil trust, Carson asserted...
...Among his other charges: Anti-trust investigations of discrimination against co-ops were blocked because the discriminatory practices were being carried on by these PAW officials...
...PAW regulations have been established in the East which put cooperative distributors at the mercy of the big oil companies...
...His recent conclusion, drawn from a speech given by Rep...
...Progressives urge, as a means of building a sound postwar economy, the strengthening and extension of the cooperative movement...
...Summing up the California progressive's address, Carson said, "The oil trust dominates the United States Government and is using, as it has long used, its power to develop even greater monopoly during the war emergency...
...Statistics purporting to represent the amount of crude oil reserves in this country, supplied for the Government by the oil interests, are completely erroneous, he declared...
...PAW Dominated By Oil Trust Asserting that there is no other way to sum up Voorhis' speech, Carson reported that the Congressman spent weeks preparing his facts and checking and re-checking his material...
...Voorhis, according to Carson's summary, charged that independent development of oil fields has been frustrated by the major oil companies who are doing everything in their power to reduce production and foster monopoly...
...PAW is trying to force the Government to abandon the "Big Inch" pipeline because it might become useful to consumers and independents and thus help destroy the pipe-line monopoly...
...A careful reporter, in whose dis-patches one rarely finds extravagant or unwarranted conclusions, Carson has established an admirable reputation for reliability and thoroughness even among those who do not always agree with the viewpoint of the organization he represents...
...The Progressive plank urges "more extensive support of producer and consumer, cooperatives and public corporations modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide a continuing yardstick by which to compel the adherence of monopoly business to a program of abundance and full employment...
...The Cooperative Movemenf: Oil For The Wheels Of Monopoly By MILES McMILLIN AS the Washington representative of the Cooperative League of the U. S. A. John Carson has to be constantly on the alert to detect and report new developments strengthening the hold of monopolistic elements, the mortal foe of cooper-alives...
...The oil trust has succeeded in obtaining a "consent decree" from the Department of Justice, thus preventing the Government from collecting $3,000,000,000 in fines in a rebate suit against the big oil companies...
...Certain powerful vested interests are attempting to curtail and cripple the development of the cooperative movement...
...In a separate plank on cooperatives the platform states: "Genuine producer and consumer cooperatives have proved the most effective methods for farmer and consumer to help themselves...
...Jerry Voorhis, California Democrat, is thus all the more significant...
...Progressives Urge Cooperation The Progressive has repeatedly called attention to the alarming growth of monopoly to which Carson and Voorhis have referred...
...Carson has done a fine job of watching and exposing the steady rise of monopoly power and influence in the nation's capital...
...His reports of the steady climb of monopolistic forces to their present unprecedented position in official Governmental bureaus, have been some of the best to come out of Washington in this field during the war emergency...
...The Petroleum Administration for War, presided over by Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes, is dominated by these big companies...
...Recognizing that the cooperatives can play a major role in the fight against this menace, the Progressive Party of Wisconsin in its recent convention included in its anti-monopoly program a plank calling for the extension and strengthening of co-ops as a specific weapon against monopoly...
...a farm cooperative which had arranged to ship from its own supplies was pounced on and ordered to turn its oil over to the Army and Navy...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 22
