Arkansas State press., 1944-10-13
Some Agreements
Sanctioned by u. S..


In some cases American companies
specifically the one which had the
right to certain manufacturing proc
esses in high octane-had permits.
sion from the war department to ex-
tend their use in foreign countries.
The Universal Oil Products COM
pany made special inquiry of the
general staff regarding installing
plants in Germany and Japan and
they were told in July, 1888, Tho
war department has no objection
FOR the exploitation OF these proc
esses abroad
Other manufacturers were not so
scrupulous The kilgore report re-
veals an interesting letter written
on April II. 1910, three months after
| the President had announced a
morale embargo against Japan.
The letter was written by an official
| of Texas oil company to Mr..
Darcy. representing the Mitsubishi
| Oil company of Japan. 1t was sent
to Darcy's home following up the
conveying of certain technical In
! formation" which Mr.. Darcy sent to
Tokyo. This is an excerpt from the
| letter.
For your confidential information
enclosed herewith please find photo
static copy OF Saybolt's analysis No.
l433 covering the supposedly %
| Oetane gasoline for the Maritime
Oil company. You have con-
elusive proof that our oil will run up
to 90. The attached report is
sent you in complete confidence and
be very careful to whom you dis
| close it, as 1t would get me into a
terrific jam II it ever leaked out
that | sent you this data
But the government of the United
States seized the files of the Mitsu-
| bishi company and "it' has leaked
all over the place and what is more
lit" Is a comparatively harmless
sample OF other things which will
| come out later on.
| One Of the interesting cartels deals
in product that few people not in
the leather business know anything
about. 1t is the quebracho, . SUBJ
stance used to tan and preserve
leather and it comes from the
bark OF tree grown chiefly In Ar
gentina.
The cartel is controlled by a COM
pany owned and managed by the
British. 1t has an exceedingly tight
monopoly and to an extent can
therefore control leather prices.
Since it has been In operation que
bracho prices have shot up and pro-
duction has gone down. The figures
disclosed by the investigation show
that before the cartel was formed
| quebracho was selling at just about
one-half what it costs today Six
| price-boosts were made In seven
! years and the firm is said to be now
making 1914 per cent profit
All but 10 per cent Of the que
bracho production is controlled by
the cartel and many methods are
/ used to hamstrlng the Independents,
the chief OF which is to make secret
arrangements with shippers not to
allow cargo space to the competi.
tors, and the cooperation which tho
cartel enjoys in high places is re-
vealed in the course Of Indictment
proceedings by the department Of
justice. The two firms involved were
represented by no less than an Of.
fetal envoy Of the Argentine gov
eminent.
The quebracho pool sent vital
supplies to Japan up to the last few
years and did it at cnt-rates absorb
ing the loss by boosting the price TO
this country, IT has recently been
predicted that II this pool continues
in operation there will be a serious
leather shortage after the war.
But substitutes are no solution Of
the cartel problem A world In which
one man has to use ersatz-sauce
for his goose while another gets the
gravy for his gander, isn't exactly
according to the American idea Of
fair play.