Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1931-12-31

congressional reputation OF the
great American policy of protecting
American industry for the Amer
lean people. These four great mo-
nopolistic oil companies; Standard
of New Jersey; Standard of In
diana; Shell and Gulf, have been
able to control the American Con-
gress, and prevent protection for
the American oil industry from the
ruthless competition of the impor.
tation of foreign oil.
The selfish manufacturing in
dustry, which since the war has
reaped more than it's fair share of
the nations income, has played its
part in denying to American oil it's
traditional American right to the
American market. In the last ses
sion of Congress. North Atlantic
sea-board industries joined in self
ish alliance with the four monop
olistic importing oil companies and
fought to the bitter end protection
for oil.
The power interests of Maine, the
associated industries of Massachu
sets, and the organizations Of 9th.
er northeastern Industrial centers
all stood before the Ways and
Means Committee of the House of
Representatives and opposed tariff
for oil. They were demanding
cheap fuel oil to be used in their
power plants and industries. They
were willing to destroy the Amer
lean oil and coal industries if they
could but have cheap fuel oil. They
forced their congressman to oppose
protection for OIL Today, they
have cheap fuel oil for their fac
tories, but their factories are Grip
pied for want of market. They
might better be paying little more
money for coal as their fuel and
have their factories manufacturing
commodities which are needed by
the people living in the coal and oil
sections, but who can not buy these
commodities because the oil and
coal industries are in distress.
This has been an economic blow
to the states of Texas, Oklahoma
and Kansas, Louisiana and Arkan-
sas. In their desperation, Texas,
Oklahoma and Kansas have pro-
rated and shut in their oil wells,
yet, after they made this great sac
rifice, they find that their efforts
have been greatly deprecated. The
more they have prorated, the more
foreign oil the importing companies
shipped into the United States.
On October 80, 1881, the United
States Bureau of Mines reports that
the daily production of oil in the
United States declined $2,4O0,O00
barrels under the previous month,
while the importation of foreign oil
increased 100000 barrels OF
crude oil or its equivalent in refin-
ed products. Thus four monopolis-
tic oil companies engaged in the
business Of importing oil are taking
on to themselves the fruits of the
sacrifices made by the thousands OF
people engaged in the American oil
IL
dustry could but enjoy the benefits
of the traditional principle of tariff
protection, American oil would to-
day be selling for a fair price. The
fact that oil has gone up to 85c
barrel is far from providing a
square deal for the American oil in
dustry. 1t is true that it is better
than the zoe or soc barrel and it
would today be higher than 85c if
the American market were preserv-
ed for the American oil industry.
There are many other instances
where monopoly is a menace to the
free institutions of America. The
power monopoly buying up chain
of eastern newspapers, spreading
it's propaganda through the schools,
is menace to the free institutions
of freedom of the press and of free
education
Centralized wealth receiving from
the Radio Commission $4,000 watt
clear-channel license, is driving the
smaller radios from the air. Mo-
nopoly, spending money in sena
torial elections until senatorial
seats are virtually knocked down to
the highest bidder, is a menace to
the great free institution, the pub
lie election.
Monopolistic influence on the op-
Grafton of our banking system has
been a menace. We have our de-
centralized banking system crush
ed, with credit for the property of
individuals and small corporations
destroyed. Through the rules of
the National Banking Department,
local banks have virtually been
forced to abandon credit for indi-
vidual citizens and local corpora
tions Local bankers have found,
that about the only security ac-
ceptable to the National Banking
Department, is a note secured by
certificate of stock in large cor
poration whose stock is listed on
some Board of Trade. This simply
means, that credit has been taken
away from the individual and small
er business institutions. In this
manner, the assets of the thousands
of local communities are no longer
being used to finance and build up
such communities. These local as
sets are being used to finance insti-
tutions which are large enough and
monopolistic enough for their stock
to be listed on some gambling board
of trade. Real estate, live stock, oil
properties, and other similar prop
erty owned by individuals are no
longer good security in the banking