New-York tribune., 1920-10-10
President Is Held to Have
Sacrificed Interests of
u. S. While He Pursued |
the Mirage Of Idealism
British Grip ON Oil
Fields an Example
Practical Policies Needed
to Safeguard Future of
America, He Contends
From STAFF Correspondent

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla, Oct. g.
Senator Harding declared in speech
hero tonight that while Americas
Single track" leader has been en-
gagged IN welding the entire human
race into model state, other nations,
notably Great Britain, with cold prac-
tical eyes on the future, have seized
control Of the worlds petroleum sup
ply. He said there is danger Ameri-
cans may be shut out from equal op-
2ortunity in this industry which they
gave to the world.
III some directions" said Senator
Harding, "our resources cannot be re-
liec on to serve US indefinitely. I re-
fer to petroleum and it's various
products. We arc here at the capital
Of the great, new, wonder state that
is the worlds metropolis of petroleum.
THE simple fact is that we must
turn again, now, after an excursion
into the realms of lofty and, no doubt,
most ennobling idealism, to a national
consideration of some very plain prac-
liabilities of life. The plain fact is that
while our government has been. at
tempting to organize a state of So
ciety embracing the entire human race,
IN which wars should forever be im-
possible, other great states have been
looking about for the means to domi-
nate the petroleum production of the
world, because of their conviction that
IN the control of petroleum they might
lind the power TO control the COM
merce, the trade, the industry of the
twentieth century world
Other Nations Wide Awake
"Surely it must give pause to those
OF us who would like to take a reason
ably practical view CT the actual facts
IN this world" the Senator added, "to
note that while our administration has
been trying to impose it's own copy
righted style of altrusm upon all the
world, the other great governments
have been engaged in something very
much like a scramble f6r the control
OF petroleum resources everywhere We
have seen Mcsopotama and Baku,
Trinidad and Royal Dutch, the East
Indies, Persia, Colombia and Mexico,
all falling into the hands or under the
influence of British oil interests. Our
own engineers, operators and capital
lists face the danger of being barred
out of a chance for fair participation
in future Developments"
The Harding demonstration in Okla
homa City tonight was the most fer
vid and the widest of the campaign
The town was crowded with people
from all corners of the state, with
delegations from Texas and New Mex
ico.
After the candidate had been cheered
continuously as he rode for several
miles at the head of an automobile
procession, through closely packed
ranks of spectators, his political ad-
visers travelling with him expressed the
conviction that he would carry the
state. Governor Cox, on his recent visit
here. aroused nothing like the enthu-
siasm inspired by Harding, according
to local newspaper men.
At the livestock pavilion q crowd Of
1000, squeezed into every possible nook
and corner, stood and cheered Senator
harding as only the people of the
Southwestern plains can cheer.
hlte bearded Jonathan Neff, a Civil
War veteran who beat a base drum in
Dayton, Ohio, Cox's home, to celebrate
the election Of Abraham Lincoln, beat
ms Drum again tonight for Harding
Politics here is complicated by a
strange tumble of oil riches, violent
radicaism and pro- -Germanism. The
normal Democratic majority is about
10000. With the Democrats still hat
ing each other because of a bitter
primary fight, in which the blind Sena-
(ContInucd on next paqs)