New Britain herald., 1925-04-03
BIC OIL DEAL AND
MOTOR LUCK

MOTOR LUCK
 "The deal was equivalent 10 a merger" read a news report de- scrbing purchase of control of the Pan-Amcrican Petroleum & Trans i port company by the Standard oil ! Company of Indiana. Thus we have ! another huge combination to con- template - four in one week.
 This deal takes in the Mexican interests of the Pan-American com pany pipe lines and rehneries and a tanker fleet of S1 ships, making the Standard Oil of Indiana nearly as important in the oil industry as the Standard of New Jersey. But that does not mean that the Stand ard of Indiana will compete with the Standard of New Jersey for the benefit of consumers. The courts had the power to separate the con- stituent elements of the old Stand ard oil Octopus" but no court or law has the power to make the separated units of so-called "trust' compete with each other if they do not desire to do 50. The companies of the Standard sister hood merely operate in various stipulated parts of the country and none tramps on the skirts of the other.
 The American company was the property of Edward L. Doheny. It was this company which less than two weeks after the custody of government naval oil reserve No.
 l, at Elk Hills, Calif., had been transferred by Secretary Fall to MT. Doheny, was given a contract to drill offset wells on the prop erty. This was on June il, 1921. Less than 6 year later, on April
 25, 1922, the Pan-American con-
 pany was given a contract to take
 royalty oils coming to the govern
 ment from all leases in Reserves
 No. 1 and No. 2, in exchange for
 tankage of 1,500,00O barrel capacity
 and other construction works at
 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December Ii, 1922, the entire Elk Hill re-
 serve was leased to the Doheny
 company. It was in connection with
 this oil iugglery that President Coo
 lidge on February 8, 1924, signed
 the Walsh resolution directing em-
 ployment of special counsel to start court actions to annul the Doheny leases and contracts, along with the Sinclair leases in the Teapot Dome reserve. The latter case came tc ! trial in Cheyenne. Wy" two week' : ago. It appears that the Standard 5 of Indiana does not acquire thu Pan-American's properties in Call , fornia. It is clear from this that th' Standard did not care to buy law , suit, to use a phrase current In le
 gal offices.
 The oil business is much in tn f public eye. Increases in the pric l of the product some time az t brought much indignation; but tn
 deal just concluded will not add s drop to the potential supply. h Some time ago, when price f took a slump, due to the activitie d of certain non-s Standard companie' s the industry was in favor of hayin V government commission regulat r and stabilize" it. which eyerybod - of intelligence knows means gov l. ernment assistance to maintai @ prices "up to reasonable level" h the oil men would call it. B' IS due to some sinister forces that nt e body has explained, prices took
 sudden upturn and the oil indust'
 decided it didn't need government
 assistance any more.
 Requirement by the Standard ,d Indiana of the Pan-American pro- If erty, in the estimation of most o l. servers, will not help the consume st It merely means that a powerful l
 dependent company has allowed Id wings to be clipped for the tunef l. song of $38,000,000. There " Iy simply be less independent oil to sight. The deal probably presag ,e an attempted return of the Sta n- dard branches to a complete mono ,g oly of the business. The Standa
 has sufficient money to buy up | as pestiferous independent compani ,r if it so desires, and in such ca is- as that of the Pan-American, whe J" the property consists of oil lands r- foreign parts, it is doubtful if of moribund antitrust law would a 7,- ply even should the government f ey disposed to utilize it,