Evening star., 1938-07-12
PLAN
HELD PROBES AIM
0'Mahoney, in Forum Talk,
Denies So CaI|ed Monopoly
Quiz Will Be Punitive.

wyoming, entltleo Inc Monopoly IN
vestigation," delivered last night on
tho National Radio Forum, arranged
BY The Star and broadcast over q
Nationwide network of the National
Broadcasting Co.:
Once again I am indebted to The
washington Star for an opportunity
to talk to its radio patrons on an issue
Of grave national importance. am
grateful to The Star and to you who
listen, for nothing, I'm sure, will con-
tribute more to the success of the
study now being undertaken Of the
national economic problem than q
thorough popular understanding OF its
purposes and objectives. Let me begin,
therefore. by directing attention to q
Few facts upon which there can be but
little disagreement.
The first Of these is that significant
business enterprise throughout the last
several decades has been steadily losing
Its local character and quite as steadily
assuming national character. Com
merce and industry which once were
largely carried on within narrow geo.
graphical boundaries have, in our day
largely outgrown county, State and
even national lines. At this very mo-
ment you cannot turn the dial Of your
radio without hearing the voice of
some radio announcer describing the
virtues Of some commodity nationally
distributed. You cannot turn to the
newspaper or the magazine on your
table without seeing column after
column of national advertising. You
cannot step into the streets of the city
or town in which you live without
seeing in the shops merchandise which
has been manufactured on a national
scale and not in your town; without
seeing stores and distributing centers
which are owned and controlled by
persons who live far beyond the con-
lines OF your community.
On the other hand, it Is probably
also true that many q person who
listens to me this evening owns a share
or two Of stock in some national cor
poration engaged in the manufacture
or distribution Of the goods, wares
and merchandise" which form the
subject matter of commerce. And
most certainly very large proportion
OF those who give ear to the waves of
the radio are-or, until they lost their
Jobs. were employees of national
corporate industry.
Not Operating for Employment.
That leads to another fact upon
winch all must agree: National in
dustry Is not operating in such a
manner as to give employment, even
at living wage, to all who are willing
and anxious to work Even before the
disaster of 1929 there were millions
OF unemployed in the United States
and millions Of others who, though
employed, were receiving miserably
poor compensation.
And now a third fact: Not onlv has
labor been unemployed, but capital
also. and thousands of persons who
have brains and courage and initiative
and who would like to engage In free.
private enterprise are unable to do so
because they are unable to find finan-
clal backing to enable them to compete
with national industrial giants.
So, we have highly developed ma
tional economic system operating in
a market that Is restricted by unem-
ployment. low wages and lack of f1nan-
cial support for small business. Mean
while. because Of this condition in in.
dustry. agriculture in all its branches
u crippled because the industrial svs-
TEN is out Of joint and the market
not only for all the products of the soil
but for all commodities, is limited
and confined.
Now, let me illustrate the problem
BY an incident that came to nv at
tention only few days ago from nv
own State, Wyoming We have vast
reservoirs of petroleum-most of them
on the public domain-operated for
the most part by big oil companies
or their subsidiaries. At the citv of
Casper we have large refinery. the
property OF the Standard Oh Co. of
Indiana. Notice has just been given
TO its employees that on September 1
certain operations, heretofore carried
on at IS per cent of capacity, will be
reduced to so per cent of CAPACITY with
the resultant dismissal of many per-
sons. Provision is being made, it is
true, for the payment of annuities to
some Of the older workers who are to
be dropped and OF dismissal wages to
those whose services are to be def
nltely discontinued. Thus the com.
pany is trying to cushion the blow.
Order Comes From Afar.
The significant fact, however, which
causes me to mention the case is that
the order to curtail comes from man.
agement far distant from Wyoming
and for reasons that are national, not
local, in scope. To operate at IS per
cent Of capacity, it has been necessary,
the company explained to its en-
ployes. ito ship products of the Casper
refinery into territory which could
more economically be served from
other refineries."
Now, the men who are to be laid
on are skilled oil workers. There is
no other oil work for them at CASPER
and no other employment for which
they are trained or at which they could
receive the wages to which they have
been accustomed. So they are being
eliminated as consumers of other
products except to the degree they
can be kept going by their own savings
or by Government spending. They
are the employees Of a national, not a
local. industry.
What is happening in Casper in
the OIL industry has happened in
every industrial community in the
country in which any other industry,
Tor one reason or another, has been
forced to curtail or shut down. It is
. national problem that must be han
died IN national way. and that's
why we have the Temporary National
economic Committee which has t,lst
been set up by the Federal Govern
ment. The task Of this committee