Evening star., 1926-10-03
F1ENRYL. DO1ERTYREALL LEADER.
NUS. OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
At 56 He Heads 100 Public
Utility and Petroleum
Companies.
Accused of RadiCaIism 80
Years Ago, His Theories
Are indicated.
By NJ. :. RIKEYSER.

Henry l.. Doherty belongs to that
uncommon group of business leaders
who literally lead.
The. ma iority of corporation presi-
dents merely execute policies in con-
formity with accepted standards of
good business practice. Mr.. Doherty,
who at So, heads one hundred public
utility and oil companies-a 5000 ,000.-
900 combine, the so-called Cities Serv-
ice group--is perpetually quarreling
with the majority. One who is famil-
lar with the history of Mr.. Doherty's
protests against things as they are
would expect to find him without
worldly goods, the leader of some anti
movement, a financial martyr to free
thinking.
There are plenty of such men, but
the uniquenesS of Mr.. Doherty lies in
the fact that he has become New
York most successful bachelor,
while persistently rubbing salt Into
his outstanding colleagues and COM
petitors. There is fighting Irish in
Mr.. Doherty, and the pugnacious quail
ity develops. instead of diminishing,
with the passing of the years. Mr..
Dohertv has just emerged from the
bittereSt and most precariouS battle
of his career-and he has come
through with complete victory.
Called Him Visionary.
Thirty years ago, the leaders OF
the gas industry wanted to run Mr..
Doherty out Of the trade because of
his radical" and visionary" ideas,
which now have become common
practice. A decade later, the electrical
industry regarded him as a disturb
ing factor, with silly notions about
stimulating the demand for service by
advertising, and with inflated ideas
of the potentialities for expansion in
the industry. Now the electrical in
dustry follows these policies, which
then seemed queer, and has discoV
cred that Mr.. Doherty, in predicting
the growth of the use of electricity,
understated the situation in manner
that makes him admit he was
"piker."
Shortly before the war, Mr.. Doherty
extended his operations into the oil
industry. and his subsidiaries are now.
among the most important independ-
ent producers of petroleum in the
world. Mr.. Doherty is directorate
large of the American Petroleum In
stitute and in a position to call Rookie
feller's hired men and other major
executives of this alluring trade by
InelE IlGSJ names. III DSCeIIlDSI. lJ-*
President Coolidge appointed the oil
conservation commission, which now
consists of these four cabinet mem
bers: Hubert Work, chairman: Dwight
+. Davis. Curtis d. Wilbur and Her
bert Hoover, to discover whether the
report that America s natural re-
sources in oil were being wasted In q
manner that might interfere with ma
tional defense, was well founded. That
commission has just issued it's pre-
liminary report, which, without NAM
ing Mr.. Doherty, sponsors several
unpopular" ideas of revolutionary
significance in the oil industry, which
Mr.. Doherty has favored for seven
years and openly eSpoused for the last
three.
The report of the conservation com
mission, predicting an oil shortage In
six years. is a heavy document, and
though of profound Importance to this
flivver civilization of ours, has prob
ably made no impression yet on the
man at the steering wheel of the ma
tion'S 20,000,000 automobiles. The
commission has followed Mr.. Doherty
in advocating "the unit pool opera
ton of oil wells. That sounds pro-
sale enough. but. if adopted, would
turn the industry upside down. 1t
would overnight end the present re
gime of high melodrama and revolving
waste in the production of oil. The
present oil rusheS. which add vivid
color to our humdrum business life,
would pass into memory with witch