The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-14
NEA Service Writer

 Washington--"Filib ex- plains Senator Elmer Thomas of Ok lahoma, 'is exactly comparable to the organization of labor. A labor ing mans only chance for justice Hes | in organizing. Tn the senate, q man s only chance for Justice Is to use the | senate rules, either to kill an obtec- tionable thing or to get attention fdr matters of great importance which have been Ignored.
 "No fiilibuster ever puts through an unjust law. filibuster cannot hurt the people. but 1t can protect them and can block majorities when they are inspired by selfish special interests"
 Senator Thomas was the big fili- busterer of the Fist Congress, hold ing the floor on the last day with what he says was the sole intention
 of attracting national interest 10
 "the third largest industry in the country, which is wholly unregu- lated."
 Led oil Fight.
 Thomas had been leader in the | fights, first for an oil tariff. second for an embargo on oil and third for an investigation of the industry. He was so sore at the failure of them ali--due to what he considered the efforts of the huge oil corporations that he chose the spectacular
 method of filibuster to get public
 attention.
 The senator cmphatlcaliy denies, however, that he was responsible for
 blocking legislation In those last three hours. Failure of the matern- ity an infancy measure. the immi- grafton restriction bill and the copy lx-fs tA 1a atU hna hanf
 widely attributed to the Thomas filibuster. but Thomas points out | that all three had their enemies and
 that if he hadn't been filibustering In those three hours, someone else
 would have been filibustcrins. Not single bill that had q chance was blocked" Thomas says.
 Every bill senator wanted to pass
 could have gone through as far ns
 I was concerned. as did the $5,000,-
 900 hospitaiization bill and others" Anyway. according to Thomas. the state of Ak1ahoma Is behind him to q man. Oklahoma is such q big oil producing state that unless the oil l industry prospers, Oklahoma doesn't prosper. Tho small companies which have been drilling have lately had
 no market for their oil: the contract price for crude is now about q dol- lar barrel. but the open price has been about 70 cents, the senator
 says.
 Every landowner in the state bee Iieves he Is on top of an oil field land drilled and going broke from
 drought, low prices and loss of lease
 royalties, have been hollering, along
 with other Oklahomans.
 The state has an oil production
 tax of 3 per cent gross and the great
 slump in crude prices has cut in. come from oil down to about third of what 1t was, which puts the tax right back on the people. The cities enjoy good times when oil field and other lahorers are employed. but un- employnient has hit Oklahoma as fl has other states. A big park in Ok
 lahoma City is full of food tents,
 which are feeding 5000 persons .
 day.
 The independent oil producers first put on q terrific campaign for an
 oil tariff; they knew the big oil com. panies, headed by tho Standard
 group, were bringing fin 100000. 00O barrels q year from abroad and with
 enromous domestic overproduction, | felt that ought to be stopped.
 The oil tariff failed and in the last
 weeks of Congress there was strons movement for an embargo on oil. II
 became obvious that this, too, was
 doomed to failure and Thomas and other friends of the independent pro- ducers then demanded senatorial
 investigation of conditions in the industry, which was proposed in 2 resolution introduced by Nye of North Dakota. When that was biocked--easily, because of the par l1iamentary eituation-Thonas de- cided to dlibuster and tell the world
 all about what the big oil compan-