The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-05
VIII.

little company which had started
drilling on the Sunnyside naval re-
serve. 1t sent in bunch of ma
rines to do it, and this unpreee-
denied move attracted lot of at
tention, which worried Dad and
Verne. The latter had man up
there, to fix matters with the news
paper correspondents; and Young
Pete" was in Washington, seeing to
things there. You began to notice
in the newspapers items to the ef-
feet that the navy department was
greatly worried because companies
occupying lands adjoining the naval
reserves were drilling, and draining
the navy's OIL this would be a ca
lamity, and the authorities were OF
the opinion that in order to avoid it
the reserves should be turned over
to the department of the interior,
which would lease them upon terms
advantageous to the government.
Bunny didn't need to ask his
father about that propaganda; he
knew what it meant, and he waited,
wondering-was it possible to get
away with anything so crude? Could
anybody fail to see that the govern
ment could have taken the adjoin-
ing lands, under the same powers
which had set aside the present re-
serves? Or that the navy could
have put down offset wells on its
own property, exactly as any oil
man would have done? But no, this
administration was not thinking
about the navy--it was thinking
about Dad and Verne! When the
oil men had bought the republican
convention, they had also got the
machinery of the party, and that in
cluded the press, which now accept
ed meekly the dope" sent out from
Washington, and commended the
prompt measures of the administra-
ton to protect the navy's precious
oil
Then peculiar thing happened.
Dan Irving called Bunny on the
phone, and made a date for lunch.
The first thing he said, Well, the
labor college is flooey-nas pool"
He went on to declare, it was
waste of time to try to keep such an
enterprise alive, so long as the pres
ent labor leaders were in power;
they didn't want the young workers
to be edueated---it wouldn't be so
easy for the machine to control
them. Last week somebody had
raided the college at night, and
taken most of its belongings, except
the debts; Dan had decided to pay
these out of his savings and quit.
what are you going to do?"
asked Bunny. And Dan explained;
he had been sending in news to
little press service which bunch of
radicals were maintaining in Chi
cago, and he had got lot of infor-
nation from Washington that had
attracted attention. He had some
friends there on the inside, and the
upshot of it was that Dan had been
offered fifteen dollars week to go
to the national capital as CORE
spondent of this press service. II
can exist on that, and it's the best
job l can do"
Bunny was enthusiastic. Dan,
that's finei There's plenty of ras-
Gals that need to be smoked out%
II know it; and that's what want
to see you about. One of the things
I've got my eye on is these naval
reserve oil leases. They look
mighty fshy to me. Unless I'm
missing my guess, the people behind
it are Vernon Roscoe and Pete
O'Reilly, and there's bound to be
black wherever their hands have
touched
II suppose So" replied Bunny,
trying to keep his voice from going
weak. s
There's talk in Washington that
that's how Crisby came into the cab
met. The deal was fixed up before
Harding got his nomination. Gen
eral Wood says the nomination was
offered to him If he'd make such q
deal, and he turned it down.
"Good Lord" said Bunny.
"Of course don't know yet, but
I'm going to dig 1t out. Then re-
membered that Roscoe is an asso-
ciate of your fathers, and It oc-
Cured to me II would be awkward
as the devil If was to come on
anything--well, you know what I
mean, Bunny-after your father was
so kind to me, and you put up money
for the college st
"Sure, know" said Bunny. You
don't have, to worry about that, Dan.
You go ahead and do your job, just
as II you'd never known us"
That's fine of you. But listen
| was afraid maybe some day there
might be misunderstanding unless
| got this clear, that never got any
hint on this subject from you. My
recollection Is positive, you've never
mentioned It in my hearing. Is that
right?"
ITS absolutely right, DAM
n