The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1956-04-06

school students with company propa
ganda.
One of the biggest political propa
ganda battles of recent years centeree
about the issue of offshore oil. Thi
issue caused Harold Ickes to resign
from President Truman's cabinet
spanked the Dixiecrat revolt in 194S
helped swing part of the South and
! Southwest to Eisenhower in 1852
and ended with reversal of the poll
cy, long upheld by the courts, that
the federal government owned the
oil-rich submerged lands off the
coasts.
COP VICTORY AIDED
GIVEAWAY
Giveaway legislation was passed
after the 1852 COP victory. A Rookie
Teller brother-in-law became ambassa-
dor to Britain, in good position to
safeguard the worldwide interests of
Standard Oil. An Gilman, Robert B.
Anderson, was named to head the
Navy Department. Herbert Brownell,
who certainly wouldn't be tempted
to apply antitrust laws to the oil
firms, was placed in charge of the
Justice Department.
1t should be pointed out that the
oil industry has never exactly suf-
fered at the hands of any administra-
ton. When Standard Oil was forced
to split into separate corporations
years ago. the offspring continued
to do just as we'll as the mother
firm. And the depletion allowance,
the biggest of all loopholes in the
tax laws, dating from 1926, has
helped produce "the biggest and most
blatant crop of millionaires that the
nation has seen since the robber
barons flourished in the late nine
teenth century.
What "hands-off" legislation has
done for the oil industry within the
United States, it has been the special
province of the State Department to
do abroad. Some of O'Connor's most
penetrating chapters describe how
the international oil cartel was
formed and operates. In the struggle
for the rich oil lands of the Middle
East since World War 1, O'Connor
tells US, the State Department has
more than once had to turn the heat
on other countries to pry open entry
for American firms.
NO BENEFIT TO THE PEOPLE
Today, relations between the
British, Dutch and French !
oil companies which have divided the
market are pretty much |
Inder control.
The arrangement has benefited |
only the oil companies and the local |
Middle East potentates who receive
royalties for the use of their lands.
f, for example. the royalties paid to
he Shiek of Kuwait on the Arabian
Peninsula were divided equally among
lis subjects, their annual income
would be $3.50. In 1851 it averaged
$50. No unions or clubs are tolerated
n Kuwait. Murderers are flogged i
Until dead. Almost everyone is illit-
rate. But still the money pours in.
In the face of the tremendous
,ower welded by the oil giants, how
ave oil workers unions Jared in the
United States? Their road has not
cen an easy one. Early unions,
rushed by the employers, were fol-
,wed by management paternalism
nd company unions. Only few
trong locals of an AFL interna-
onal union, formed during World
Var I, were left to become the nue.
.us of the CLIO Oil Workers in the
930s.
At present the Clio union is the
ajor labor organization in the
cid, although oil workers are also
,ouped in Independent and AFL
Mons. Most refinery and pipe line
orkers are unionized, although at
1lb opdc o.f tho in d11 Stru-d limo