Evening star., 1939-08-27

w. r. DAVIS.
A. P. Photo.
Co., controlled by Dutch Shell. This
claim derives from Davis acquisition of
the relatively small Sobalo Oil Co. One
thing is certain-he is having a struggle.
Believe Davis to Be Key.
But that is nothing new in the career
of this extraordinary figure whose free
lance oil operations have now become an
element in world politics Many observers
believe that Mexico could not have mar
keted oil in any sizable quantities if 1t
had not been for Davis. Without him
the Standard OilDutch Shell blockade
would have shut off all markets With
German aid, Davis rounded up tankers
and started oil across the sea not long
after appropriation took place.
Perhaps the most important and at
the same time the least known figure
in the controversy, Davis has had an ad-
venturous life. His present conflict with
the big Oil companies is just another
skirmish in a lifelong war. AS Davis
would tell it, he has been subject to the
constant persecution Of the companies
that dominate the world trade in oil.
From the oil companies point of view,
he is a reckless interloper.
Now about so years old, Davis was
born in Alabama. Briefly, he attended
Stark College in Montgomery but left
school to become butcher for the
Union Iot ha
man for the M. o. & c. Railroad out of
Muskogee, Okla, and still later he was
made an engineer
While still comparatively young, how
ever, he began to organize the first of
the numerous succession of companies
that he has brought into being. The
chief asset of these early companies was
the intense enthusiasm of their pro-
moter.
After his service in the war, Davis
became an oil lease broker. It was at
this time that he made a contact with
the Benedum Trees Co., the largest in
dependent oil exploring and drilling firm
in the world. This was to prove an i'm
portant connection later on.
Pipe Line Brings Litigation.
Later he formed the Arkansas Natural
Gas Corp. And he had great deal
to do with organizing a new bank at
Eldorado, the Exchange Bank & Trust
Co. Involved in this series of opera
tions was the construction of q pipe
line to carry natural gas Davis charges
that the oil companies set out to get
control of the gas field and that finally
he was left with pipe line running
from nothing to nothing. A cloud of
litigation obscured this venture. At
about this time, too, he formed the
Foreign Oil Co. IN Boston, company
which was to prove useful instrument
in his later operations.
Then came the Peruvian adventure.
Bertram T. Lee, an American, had
obtained from the then dictator of
Peru, the late former President Leguia,
a tremendous concession. 1t was the
last great concession in the Western
Hemisphere. covering virtually all of
Northern Peru with potential wealth
of hundreds of millions of dollars. Be-
fore exploitation of mineral and other
resources in the area could begin, the
contract called for the start of con-
struction of railroad from the Port
of Yurimaguas on the Huallaga River,
a navigable tributary of the Amazon,
to point on the Pacific Ocean 600 miles
distant at an estimated cost of $685.
100000.
Lee arranged with the Benedum
Trees Co. for preliminary surveys look
ing to exploitation of the oil resources
in what was virtually an empire.
Benedum Trees hired Davis to 60 to
Peru. What happened next is not en-
tirely clear. The facts are that Lees
concession was Cancelled by decree
of President Leguia on July 26, 1929,
on the basis of alleged -fulfllment
OF certain terms of the agreement. Less
than year later the same concessions
were granted to Davis in a contract
signed June rs, 1880.
The American Ambassador to Peru
at that time was the late Alexander
Moore Of Pittsburgh. The strong i'm
preston prevailed at the State Depart
ment that Moore had used his influence
to get the concession for Davis instead
of Lee. Lee entered into lengthy nego-
tiations to get the concession restored,
negotiations that were being pressed by
the State Department as recently as
year ago. With the death Of Leguia,