The Butler County press. [volume], January 26, 1923, Image 1

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VOL. XXII. No. 41
Art*
Washington. The Chamber of
Commerce of the United States is ex
amining the question of affiliation with
the international labor office, set up
by the Versailles treaty at Geneva,
according to Julius H. Barnes, presi
dent of the chamber.
President Gompers says the state
ment by Mr. Barnes "makes it pos
sible for me to bring the whole mat
ter before the February meeting of
the executive council of the A. F. of
L."
"The position of the A. F. of L.
has been clearly defined in two con
ventions," said the A. F. of L. execu
tive, in answer to queries on labor's
attitude. "It is one of indorsement
of the international labor organiza
tion. The A. F. of L. authorized me to
be one of a group of its representa
tives in Paris during the peace confer
ence, and in that capacity I was select
ed by President Wilson to represent
the United States as a member of the
commission which drafted the labor
charter under which the international
labor office was organized. I presid
ed over the meetings of that commis
sion.
"Manifestly, American labor having
thus participated in laying the founda
tion for the international labor office,
it has watched the development of the
work of that office with the deepest in
terest and with a desire to participate
at the earliest opportunity.
"The announcement made by Mr.
Barnes seems to offer the opportunity
for American employers and Ameri
can workers to participate in the ac
tivities of their respective groups in
the international labor office, even
though the United States does not offi
cially become a full member of the
international labor organization.
"Perhaps there may be some who
will wonder why it is necessary for
employers and workers to act together
on this question. The international
labor organization, it should be ex­
I
T. ^ITxn TA rrrTnr
MAY JOIN LABOR BODY
UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CON
SIDERING QUESTION OF AFFILIATION
WITH A. F. OF L. TO DISCUSS
WORLD'S PROBLEMS
Plan Would Make Possible Country's Workers and Em
ployers' Participation in International Labor
Conference.at Geneva
plained, is composed of four delegates
from each member nation. Two of
these represent the government, one
represents the workers and one repre
sents employers. There are thus
three kinds of delegates. Where a na
tion is not a member—and the United
States is in that category—organized
workers and organized employers may
participate unofficially in behalf of
those whom they represent and that,
I understand, is what Mr. Barnes has
in mind.
"I think such participation, or col
laboration, will be decidedly helpful,
and now that the effort has been be
gun, it may be possible for both work
ers and employers of the United
States to sit in the next annual meet
ing of the international labor organi
zation in Geneva. This will be partic
ularly gratifying, because this is the
one world organization that is actually
functioning in a constructive, helpful
manner."
FAVOR SWEATING
London, England.—Trade unionists
are preparing to resist government
proposals that would virtually de
stroy the trade board acts.
The first act was passed in 1909
as a result of trade union agitation
against the "sweating" system among
oppressed and low-wage workers.
Since the passing of the 1918
amendment 65 boards affecting more
than 3,000,000 workers have been set
up. Seventy per cent of these work
ers are women. These boards now
set wages of'many classes of unor
ganized and low-paid workers outside
the most flagrant sweating trades.
The government's proposal to
amend the act is based on the theory
that a trade board should be con
cerned only with the prevention of
"sweating" of the worst form, and
not, as now, with the fixation for
scheduled trades, of a minimum wage.
Palace 3rd
Anniversary
Celebration
S A S
FEB. 3
Watch Next Week's Press
(Copyright. W. N.
!!lilll!ll!ll llll III!
RD
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This is the second of a series of
articles written by Mr. Bell on the oil
leasing program proclaimed by Sec
retary of the Interior Albert B. Fall
in a recent public statement.
These articles have been written by
Mr. Bell especially for the trade union
publications through the International
Labor News Service. They are writ
ten for the information
xnt
those who
might be misled by the interview of
the Secretary of the Interior released
December 21,1922 and by the propa
ganda with which the press, especially
the oil journals, now are loaded seek
ing to justify the action of the secre
tary of April 7, 1922, in leasing naval
reserve No. 3 to the Mammoth Oil
Company.
By ROBERT C. BELL
Formerly Special Assistant to the
Attorney General in Charge With
drawn Oil Land Matters.
It may not be amiss to recall what
the government is to receive for its
royalties from the naval reserve under
the secretary's "program." It is pro
vided that non-interest bearing "oil
certificates" shall be issued monthly
by the Mammoth Oil Company to the
government showing the amount of
royalty oil and the value thereof.
These certificates can be exchanged
for: (a) steel tank storage, (b) fuel
oil, (c) gasoline, kerosene, lubricating
oil or other petroleum products or (d)
a portion in cash under certain con
ditions.
Uncle Sam Pays
(a) If the government takes storage
tanks, as proposed, the Mammoth Oil
Company buys the materials and does
the constructing, and the government
does the paying. The materials are
not to be purchased, or the work done
under the competitive bidding method.
Sinclair becomes a purchasing agent
and his acts are subject only to esti
mates.
Two Dollars for One
(b) When fuel oil is taken in ex
change, the oil certificates are not
redeemed at their face value. The
government does not get a dollar's
worth of fuel oil for a dollar's worth
of its crude oil. At this point in the
negotiations the secretary must have
missed a number on "his program,"
He was dealing with experienced
"players" and it was arranged that
the exchange should be on a quantity
basis and not on a valuation basis.
Why? Because the high grade Tea
pot crude oil at Mid-Continent prices
is worth about twice as much as fuel
oil. The. Mammoth Oil Company ac
cording to this program will receive
two dollars' worth of crude for one
dollar's worth of fuel. The contract
provides that one barrel of fuel shall
be delivered to the government for
one barrel of crude, provided the
Teapot crude tests 34 degrees Baume
or over but if the test is lower then
only 63-100 of a barrel of fuel shall
be delivered for a barrel of crude.
Under the circumstances, the Mam
moth Oil Company can refine the
royalty oil, extract the" gasoline and
kerosene content and pay the gov
ernment by delivering 63 barrels of
the residuum for 100 barrels of the
crude. Further comment on this part
of the "projjram" is unnecessary.
BUTLER COUNTY PRESS
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Still Soldiering
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LAST GREAT NAVAL OIL RE
SERVE GIVEN TO TRUST CON
TROL UNDER FALL PROGRAM
Bell Shows How Combine Reaps Enormous Harvest Future Robbed
Through Leasing of Teapot Dome
Navy the Victim
(c) As to that part of the contract
providing for the exchange of the
royalty oil for gasoline, kerosene,
lubricating oil, or other petroleum,
products, there is no fixed price of
these products, or no provision for
fixing the price thereof at the rea
sonable market value or otherwise
and it appears to be a scheme to give
the Mammoth Oil Company a monop
oly on supplying these products to our
navy at its own price, at least as
far as the Teapot royalties will go in
purchasing them.
Standard Fixes Price
(d) The provisions in the contract
for payment in cash are not clear
but it is absolutely certain that if
cash is demanded the price of the oil
will be fixed by the Standard oil in
terests. Great care was used to make
this part of the agreement clear. It
is provided that the value of the roy
alty oil shall be the same as the high
est posted market price offered or
paid either, in the Salt Creek field,
or in the Mid-continent field by the
Sinclair Crude Oil Purchasing Com
pany or the Prairie Oil and Gas Com
pany. This sounds splendid to the
unwary. Note that the provision is
not the "highest posted market price,"
but that it is the highest price offer
or paid by certain companies, all
Standard oil companies. In desig
nating the Salt Creek field no com
pany is mentioned but it was not
necessary, because the Midwest Re
fining Company has a complete mo
nopoly in that field, and has never
paid more than one-half the value of
the oil. In designating the Mid-Con
tinent field two Standard oil compan
ies were selected to fix the price.
The purposes of the secretary's
"program" as set out in the preamble
to the agreement of last April were:
(a) to store oil for naval purposes,
(b) to prevent drainage of the reserve
by wells located outside thereof, (c)
to create a competitive market for
oils from the public domain in Wyo
ming, and (d) to enable the govern
ment to exchange crude oil derived
from royalties for fuel oil.
Robbing the Future
(a) Does it not seem ridiculous
to open a great reservoir of oil, take
it from its natural storage and place
it, or the fuel oil received in ex
change therefor, in artificial storage,
to deteriorate, and to throw millions
of barrels on an already glutted mar
ket especially when, according to sci
entists, the oil resources of our coun
try will be exhausted in a few dec
ades? Are we not robbing the fu
ture by a profligate waste of a pro
duct not needed at the present? Re
gardless of who is responsible for this
policy, it is difficult to find any justi
fication for it.
Excuse Proven Groundless
(b) The only excuse, with a sem
blance of plausibility, that has been
offered by the Secretary to justify
the leasing of the reserve is that the
structure was being drained by out
side wells, and this positively is not
true. Some of the best geologists in
the country are authority for this as
sertion, and recent developments con
firm it. In the last several weeks
wells have been drilled that have a
tremendous gas pressure, and produce
j&if Jan. i
sds6i.&«
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1923 ONE DOLLAR PER YEA!
thousands of barrels of oil daily. One
well is producing thirty-two million
cubic feet of gas daily. This is con
clusive evidence that there has been
no drainage. Moreover experts of
the interior department admit that
there could not be drainage to exceed
fifteen per cent of the oil. If they
are correct this 15 per cent would
not have been drained in a thousand
years and we would have profited
by conserving the other 85 per cent.
Competition—Where is It?
(c) As to creating competition
what is the situation now? We have
seen how the Ohio Oil and Gas Com
pany has Grass Creek, the Midwest
Refining Co. has Salt Creek, the Mam
moth Oil Co. has Teapot these three
have all the other valuable leases and
acreage in Wyoming and the Sinclair
Crude. Oil Purchasing Company now
has the government's royalties from
the Salt Creek field. All four of these
companies are subsidiaries of the
Standard Oil Company of Indiana, so
one can readily imagine how "vio
lent" will be the competition between
them. If the secretary has dreamed
of competition he must awake to the
stern reality that all chance for com
petition has been eliminated and that
the very ends sought by the Stand
ard oil interests have been attained.
Competition might have been estab
lished by leasing to a purely inde
pendent company a narrow strip of
the reserve to drill sufficient offset
wells to catch all drainage, if any
and such an independent company
then could have afforded to build pipe
lines and refineries, and then would
have become a real competitor in the
bidding for Salt Creek royalties. Then
there would have been some actual
competition in Wyoming. Further'
more, the Teapot reserve would have
been saved and our navy would have
had millions of barrels of oil con
served for future use.
Last Reserve Gone
(d) The navy should not now be
using its crude oil to purchase fuel.
Comparatively the cost of the navy's
fuel at present is not a matter of
large expense as fuel oil is plentiful
and cheap. It should be a purchaser
and consumer of oil under present
conditions, and not a producer and
seller from its reserve stock. By the
present policy the navy may save a
penny today and be forced to lose it
many fold tomorrow. If the navy
had other fields, that it could con
serve, the situation would not be so
bad, the action of the secretary would
not be so ill-advised but the Teapot
reserve was the only safely secured
oil in a large quantity that is owned
in all the world and it should have
been guarded with eternal vigilance
almost sacredly. Truly a number of
greedy plutocrats, in collusion with
government officials who are wholly
unmindful of the public interests
have robbed us of a possible means
of national defense.
Great Gift to S. O.
The secretary, in his two major
transactions involving public oil prop
erties in Wyoming, has handed to the
Standard oil interests the Salt Creek
royalties for five years, and our naval
reserve, worth several hundred mil
lion dollars, for all time. Now he an
nounces, as the "successful comple-
By International Labor News Service.
Washington, D. C.—Those who
would sell the ship subsidy to the
United States are becoming desper
ate. They are starting a "back fire"
on members of the house who refused
to vote for the ship subsidy bill and
are promising the "lame ducks" in
both houses appointments after March
4th if they will do their utmost to
enact this legislation.
Mr. Lasker, the chairman of the
shipping board, says he is confident
that the bill will pass the senate. He
is afraid, however, that after it again
reaches the house from the conference
committee that enough members will
vote against it to prevent approval
of the conference committee's report.
Therefore, Chambers of Commerce,
Rotarian Clubs, Manufacturers' As
sociations, bankers and other commer
cial interests are writing letters to
members of the house who voted
against the bill in order to compel
them to vote for it when it is return
ed to that body.
One of the first to receive these let
ters was Representative Lineberger,
of the Ninth Congressional District of
California. The cities of Los Angeles,
tion of his program" that the gov
ernment will receive Mid-Continent
prices for its 9,000 barrels of oil
daily, or whatever is produced. What
a consideration? Two years ago the
United States owned in Wyoming
two of the greatest oil fields in the
world, both a part of the public do
main, one dedicated to the American
navy. Today we receive Mid-Conti
nent prices, the fair market value of
oil of similar quality in the Mid-Conti
nent fields, for 9,000 barrels daily
from one of these fields, while from
the other, we receive non-interest
bearing certificates for a part of the
oil, called a royalty, and these cer
tificates are to be exchanged at half
what they should be worth, in our
opinion, for storage tanks, etc. And
yet, the secretary calls these tran
sactions successful. Who did the sec
retary represent?
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SHIP SUBSIDY LOBBYISTS
SEEK TO COMPEL CHANGE
IN HOUSE BY "BACKFIRE"
'Screws'* Being Put to Members Who Balk on Bill and
"Lame Ducks'' Who Support it Are Promised
Jobs After March 4th
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Long Beach and Pasadena are in Rep
resentative Lineberger's district.
These letters to the representative
criticized him severely for voting
against the bill when it passed the
house.
Some of the letters contain the
statement that while the writers had
not read the bill still they believed it
a good one that should be supported.
This is evidence that the friends of
the bill hope through manufactured
propaganda to brow beat and intimi
date the members who refuse to sup
port the measure and that the anti
labor organizations of Los Angeles,
Long Beach and Pasadena are willing
supporters of that program.
To the honor of Representative
Lineberger let it be said that he in
dignantly rejected the advice of the
anti-labor associations. He wrote
each of them that as long as he was
a member of congress he would vote
according to what he believed would
be for the best interests of the people
and that when he could not do that
he would resign.
The attacks upon him and others
have only served to make them more
insistent in their efforts to defeat the
ship subsidy bill.
OPPOSE FINGER PRINT
ING
Lansing, Mich.—State Representa
tive Corliss, of Detroit, wants every
one in Michigan finger printed and
has introduced a bill in the state leg
islature.
According to Mr. Corliss' plan every
Michigan resident would have to pre
sent himself to the proper authori
ties once a year and be finger printed
and also give his name, citizenship,
last address, and other information.
The bill forbids any firm or organiza
tion employing anyone who is not
registered.
It is expected that if the bill passes
the next move would be to appropriate
a few million dollars to make the law
effective. A vast army of agents
would be necessary to inspect every
factory and home.
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