Evening star., 1941-06-05

to the handling
of petro leum David Lawrence
products has been acute. With the
Justice Department, the Office Of
Production Management and the
War and Navy Departments all con-
supply some orderly way, they de-
clare, had to be found to insure an
adequate supervision. These same
executives say that if it had to be
one Government official, Secretary
Ickes revealed himself as capable
administrator when he managed
the N. R. A. oil code and hence
was best fitted for the place.
But even where there is a dis
position to welcome Mr.. Ickes and
Federal management for the emer-
gency, there runs an undercurrent
OF apprehension lest the step be the
first toward making the oil indus
try public utility. something that
would end competition and drive
small refiners and marketers out of
business, Naturally oil men do not
care to comment publicly on their
new boss, but the trade paper, the
Oil Weekly, in an editorial by Ray
L. Dudley, publisher says today:
IF there ever was an industry
which was conducting its own af-
fairs in manner to provide ample
supplies to the civilian and armed
forces of the Nation, that industry
is the oil industry.
IF there ever was a man i'll
fitted by temperament, by training,
and by natural instinct to manage
great industry, that man is Harold
1ckes.
No Oil Shortage.
"There is no oil shortage and will
be none unless the inefficient han
ding of oil matters by Ickes brings
1t about. The Presidents action is
simply a fruition of a desire which
has been in his mind and that of
1ckes for several years. That he
dares to do this is not only an evil
dence that practical thinking is
absent from some of the admins
tration's actions, but it is also evi-
dence Of the development of daring
which, in the minds of many, will
not stop with one industry, but
which aims at not only the tenn
porary control but the permanent
control of the Nations industries by
a group surrounding and including
the President.
In his radio speech, the Presi-
dent referred to the fear which
many people have that in this
struggle in which this Nation is
embarked, democratic government
will be lost. He did not say, and
possibly did not realize, that the
fear was fear of what he and his
close advisers might do. That such
a fear has been warranted is evi-
denced by the word which came last
Saturday from Hyde Park.
Will Do Very Best.
What will the industry do? The
oil industry will do its very best. The
American oil industry can do moth
ing less than its very best, even
though that best will be hampered
by the antagonistic management
and probable vindictive tampering
Of man who has no qualities nor
specific traits of ability to handle
ths job.
But the oil industry, as an Ameri-
can industry operated by American
citizens, is not yet compelled to give
up the right of free speech nor the
right to aspire to a continuance of
democratic principles which entities
those engaged in it to own property
IN their own right.
we believe that the elements
within America wish to contribute
to unity-but the President GER
tainly is going about achieving it in
q manner calculated to damage it.
and to give rise to the gravest fears
Of his ultimate aims"
Perhaps the most pointed criti-
cism about Secretary Ickes which
one hears among oil men is that he
did not stick by them and testify in
their behalf in the Madison CWis.)
oil suits. The contention has been
that the staff of the Interior De-
partment knew of the cooperative
arrangements made to keep dis
tress" oil off the market and that
no antitrust suit should have been
filed.
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