Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-11-07
down THE AGITAToRs.

The efforts of certain agitators 10
stir up trouble between the oil field
workers and their employers is dis
tinctly disloyal. The world needs every
barrel OF oil thnt is produced or can
be produced, and any movement
help TO the Germans A strike In the
oil fields can have no other effect
than limitation OF production, there
fore strike or even a momentary
cessation of production could benefit
nobody but the German emperor. 1t
is well for all the people engaged in
tho oil business to realize at this time
above all others that they are not only
the best paid class of labor in the
United States but that they are en-
gagged in n calling which demands OF
them the best Of service II America is
TO win the war.
There is not an industry in the
United States which affords such pc
culiar opportunities for individual de-
velopment as the oil and gas indus
try. Most Of the producers in okla
homa, the men OF great fortunes. have
risen from the ranks. II is only neces-
sary TO recite the instances OF John
Markham. Jr.. J. Il. Crosbie, Frank
Gillespie, Il. O. Cremin, G. T.. Roth
TO bear out the statement that In no
other occupation or profession does
individuality call for so much.
For 67 years the oil country work
ers and their employers have got
along peaceably and all attempts to
organize unions have failed because
the men working in the derrick and at
the pump realized that the conditions
were different from any other occupa-
tion or profession and n union would
hut limit their opportunities, making
the most ignorant employe In the mat
ter OF scale or wages and the matter
OF opportunities the equal OF the edu-
Gated man. The organization OF
union means nothing else but a limita-
ton of opportunities. dead level OF
The oil country does
not want that because the oil country
wants the widest possible latitude OF
development.
As said before, the world needs
every barrel of oil that can be pro-
duced. Any man or any set OF men
tion OF oil to the extent OF fraction
of barrel are helping the German
emperor. The agitators have no busl-
ness in Oklahoma and Kansas. There
oil history in Oklahoma and Kansas
n single disagreement between the
employees and the employers which
has not been settled or which could
not be settled by individual conference
in three minutes. The one remedy for
the vicious agitator is to ride him on
rail. If he seriously objects to that
he might be used for decoration for n
telephone pole that is slightly out Of
place in the original design, hut the
workers in the oil country of Okla
homa and Kansas, the boys at the
pump and on the tower should realize
that now above all other times the
country needs them and that their
service in the production OF oil goes
as far toward making the world safe
for democracy as bullet fired from
the trenches in France. They should
realize that when the panic Of 1907
struck this country and oil was at 40
cents barrel and frequently below
that, wages We're never reduced. They
should also realize that the increase in
wages in the oil country since the be-
ginning OF the war has been in greater
ratio to the increase in the prices of
necessities OF life than the price of
crude oil has been in regard to the
ratio OF the manufactured product.
IL has never been necessary 10 have n
union of oil workers In oklahoma
even when II was producing five hun
dred thousand barrels of oil per day.
and II is not necessary now. The agi-
tators are just kidding themselves.