Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-03-26
SPREAD OF THE OIL STAIN

SPREAD OF THE OIL STAIN
Over a period of years people have
been accommodating impressions re-
Specting the manipulators of the
worlds supplies of petroleum.. The
monipulators apparently have not
been impressed, at least with the
idea that public sentiment amounts
to much. Events bear out their con-
illusions. True, their assumption of
Responsibility may be a sign Of de-
sire on their part to be considered
law biding citizens. So much
would seem to be due to the laws and
the governments under which the
manipulators manipulate and are
protected in so doing.
The Government charges that the
Teapot Dome lease transaction was
wilful and secret violation of the
laws of the United States. 1t is
significant that officials Of assumed
~ respectable concerns are in hiding
pr have left the country to avoid
telling what they know. AS yet We
have heard no protest from the
Aforesaid assumedly respectable con-
Germs. II one of their employees
should run away to avoid giving
evidence concerning the robbery Of a
peanut stand they might redden with
righteous indignation. But when
their officials leave the country
rather than reveal apparent robbery
OF tho Government they remain tran
quill and SNUG.
Clean Up the Oil Business" is the
subject to which the New York
World devotes columns Of scathing
editorial comment. We wish we had
space for the whole of it, for It
names the responsible directors in
the enterprises said to be connected
directly or indirectly with the Teapot
Dome affair, concerning which The
World says:
I'm effect, there has been a con-
spiracy to obstruct and defeat the
administration Of justice. These
missing witnesses were men who
were personally concerned in the
famous oil deal in which the Con-
tinental Trading Company of Canada
figured. It was the agency which,
the Government attorneys proposed
to show, was used to deliver large
lots of Liberty bonds that had been
traced to Falls account in Western
banks. These missing witnesses
Id Att 1s To- 80
ranking American oil corporations.
were men at the top of the oil in
dustry and Of prominent standing in
the financial world" -
But where to-day do the boards
OF the great oil companies with
which Stewart, Blackmer and O'Neil
have been connected stand in this
national oil scandal? Where do the
directors as individuals stand? ?
Where are the men who act and
speak for rich and respectable in
terests controlling these oil COM
banies? What have they done and
what are they doing for the pro-
lection Of their own regulations and
their personal honor?" ="
Is the good name Of the Govern
ment in the keeping of such interests
backed by ten billions Of the public's
Investments, this tremendously potent
factor either for the maintenance or
the disturbance Of international
peace? Are the manipulators of the
oil business showing themselves citi-
lens At for such a responsibility; en-
Titled to trust and confidence? Most
Of us know what happened to the
RAILROADS after reckless and ruthless
management had inculcated public
prejudice against them. which honest
effort is finding it so extremely diff
{icult to overcome, and from which
honest stockholders have suffered.
Considering these things one feels
like echoing The Worlds conclusion:
ut is time that the oil business be
cleansed from top to bottom. 1t is
time that it be rid of crooks and
towards" 1t might be added that it
is time the Government was making
an effort to discover substitute for
petroleum which so might not be
permitted to come under the control
of such an aggregation; do this as a
measure of defense not only against
enemies abroad but piracy at home.