Opinion ID: 103352
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Alleged Conspiracy.

Text: The alleged conspiracy is not to be found in any formal contract or agreement. It is to be pieced together from the testimony of many witnesses and the contents of over 1,000 exhibits, extending through the 3,900 printed pages of the record. What follows is based almost entirely on unequivocal testimony or undisputed contents of exhibits, only occasionally on the irresistible inferences from those facts.
The next meeting of the General Stabilization Committee was held in Chicago on January 4, 1935, and was attended by all of the individual respondents, by representatives of the corporate respondents, and by others. Representatives of independent refiners, present at the meeting, complained of the failure of the price of refined gasoline to reach a parity with the crude oil price of $1 a barrel. And complaints by the independents of the depressing effect on the market of hot and distress gasoline were reported. Views were expressed to the effect that if we were going to have general stabilization in retail markets, we must have some sort of a firm market in the tank car market. As a result of the discussion Arnott appointed a Tank Car Stabilization Committee [19] to study the situation and make a report, or, to use the language of one of those present, to consider ways and means of establishing and maintaining an active and strong tank car market on gasoline. Three days after this committee was appointed, this Court decided Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, supra . As we have said, there was evidence that following that decision there was a renewed influx of hot gasoline into the Mid-Western area with a consequent falling off of the tank car market prices. The first meeting of the Tank Car Committee was held February 5, 1935, and the second on February 11, 1935. At these meetings the alleged conspiracy was formed, the substance of which, so far as it pertained to the Mid-Continent phase, was as follows: It was estimated that there would be between 600 and 700 tank cars of distress gasoline produced in the Mid-Continent oil field every month by about 17 independent refiners. These refiners, not having regular outlets for the gasoline, would be unable to dispose of it except at distress prices. Accordingly, it was proposed and decided that certain major companies (including the corporate respondents) would purchase gasoline from these refiners. The Committee would assemble each month information as to the quantity and location of this distress gasoline. Each of the major companies was to select one (or more) of the independent refiners having distress gasoline as its dancing partner, [20] and would assume responsibility for purchasing its distress supply. In this manner buying power would be coordinated, purchases would be effectively placed, and the results would be much superior to the previous haphazard purchasing. There were to be no formal contractual commitments to purchase this gasoline, either between the major companies or between the majors and the independents. Rather it was an informal gentlemen's agreement or understanding whereby each undertook to perform his share of the joint undertaking. Purchases were to be made at the fair going market price. A Mechanical Sub-Committee [21] was appointed to find purchasers for any new distress gasoline which might appear between the monthly meetings of the Tank Car Stabilization Committee and to handle detailed problems arising during these periods. It was agreed that any such attempt to stabilize the tank car market was hopeless until the flow of hot gasoline was stopped. But it was expected that a bill pending before Congress to prohibit interstate shipment of hot gasoline would soon be enacted which would deal effectively with that problem. Accordingly, it was decided not to put any program into operation until this bill had been enacted and became operative. It was left to respondent Arnott to give the signal for putting the program into operation after this had occurred. The Connally Act (49 Stat. 30) became law on February 22, 1935. The enforcement agency under this Act was the Federal Tender Board which was appointed about March 1st. It issued its first tenders March 4th. On March 1st respondents Arnott and Ashton explained the buying program to a group of Mid-Continent independent refiners in Kansas City, who expressed a desire to cooperate and who appointed a committee to attend a meeting of the Tank Car Stabilization Committee in St. Louis on March 5th to learn more about the details. This meeting was held with the committee of the independents presents at one of the sessions. At a later session that day the final details of the Mid-Continent buying program were worked out, including an assignment of the dancing partners among the major companies. [22] On March 6th Ashton telephoned Arnott and told him what had been accomplished at the St. Louis meeting. Later the same day Arnott told Ashton by telephone that the program should be put into operation as soon as possible, since the Federal Tender Board seemed to be cleaning up the hot oil situation in East Texas. Ashton advised McDowell, chairman of the Mechanical Sub-Committee, of Arnott's instructions. And on March 7th that committee went into action. They divided up the major companies; each communicated with those on his list, advised them that the program was launched, and suggested that they get in touch with their respective dancing partners. Before the month was out all companies alleged to have participated in the program (except one or two) made purchases; 757 tank cars were bought from all but three of the independent refiners who were named in the indictment as sellers.
No specific term for the buying program was decided upon, beyond the first month. But it was started with the hope of its continuance from month to month. And in fact it did go on for over a year, as we shall see. The concerted action under this program took the following form: The Tank Car Stabilization Committee had A.V. Bourque, Secretary of the Western Petroleum Refiners' Association, [23] make a monthly survey, showing the amount of distress gasoline which each independent refiner would have during the month. From March 1935 through February 1936 that Committee met once a month. At these meetings the surveys showing the amount and location of distress gasoline were presented and discussed. They usually revealed that from 600 to 800 tank cars of distress gasoline would become available during the month. Each member of the Committee present would indicate how much his company would buy and from whom. Those companies which were not represented at the meetings were approached by the Mechanical Sub-Committee; word was gotten to them as to the amount of gasoline that it was felt they could take in that month. Also, as we have stated, the Mechanical Sub-Committee would endeavor to find purchasers for any new distress gasoline which appeared between the meetings of the Tank Car Stabilization Committee. It would report such new surpluses to Bourque. The functions of the Mechanical Sub-Committee were apparently not restricted merely to dissemination of information to the buyers. One of its members testified that he urged the majors to buy more distress gasoline. Throughout, persuasion was apparently used to the end that all distress gasoline would be taken by the majors and so kept from the tank car markets. As the program progressed, most of the major companies continued to buy from the same dancing partners with whom they had started. One of the tasks of the Mechanical Sub-Committee was to keep itself informed as to the current prices of gasoline and to use its persuasion and influence to see to it that the majors paid a fair going market price and did not chisel on the small refiners. It did so. At its meetings during the spring of 1935 the question of the fair going market price was discussed. For example, Jacobi, a member of the Sub-Committee, testified that at the meeting of March 14, 1935, the subcommittee . . . arrived at what we thought was a fair market price for the week following, viz. 3 3/4¢ and 4 3/4 ¢. [24] Jacobi termed these prices arrived at by the Sub-Committee as the recommended prices. He made it a practice of recommending these prices to the major companies with which he communicated. According to his testimony, those recommendations were represented by him to be not the Sub-Committee's but his own idea. McDowell testified that he never made any such price recommendations but if asked would tell the purchasing companies what his own company was paying for gasoline. [25] Up to June 7, 1935, price recommendations were made five or seven times, each time the recommended prices constituting a price advance of 1/8 ¢ or 1/4¢ over the previous recommendation. No more price recommendations were made in 1935. In January 1936 there was an advance in the price of crude oil. The members of the Sub-Committee discussed the price situation and concluded that an advance of 1/2¢ a gallon of gasoline purchased under the program should be made. Jacobi made that recommendation to the companies on his list. We shall discuss later the effect of this buying program on the market. The major companies regularly reported to Bourque, the trade association representative of the Mid-Continent independent refiners, the volume of their purchases under the program and the prices paid. Representatives of one of the corporate respondents repeatedly characterized its purchases under the program as quotas, obligations, or allocations. They spoke of one of its dancing partners under the buying program as one of the babies placed in our lap last spring when this thing was inaugurated. And they stated that we don't have much choice as to whose material we are to take, when we purchase outside third grade gasoline in connection with the Buying Program Committee's operations. On such purchases, we have refineries `assigned' to us. This was doubtless laymen's, not lawyers', language. As we have said, there does not appear to have been any binding commitment to purchase; the plan was wholly voluntary; there is nothing in the record to indicate that a participant would be penalized for failure to cooperate. But though the arrangement was informal, it was nonetheless effective, as we shall see. And, as stated by the Circuit Court of Appeals, there did appear to be at least a moral obligation to purchase the amounts specified at the fair market prices recommended. That alone would seem to explain why some of the major companies cancelled or declined to enter into profitable deals for the exchange of gasoline with other companies in order to participate in this buying program. Respondent Skelly Oil Co. apparently lost at least some of its pipe-line transportation profit of 3/16¢ a gallon on every car of gasoline purchased by it in the buying program. And both that company and respondent Wadhams Oil Co. continued to make purchases of gasoline under the program although they were unable then to dispose of it. Up to June 1935, the expenses incurred by the members of the Mechanical Sub-Committee were charged to and paid by the Planning and Coordination Committee of the Code of Fair Competition for the Petroleum Industry. On May 27, 1935, this Court held in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, that the code-making authority conferred by the National Industrial Recovery Act was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. Shortly thereafter the Tank Car Stabilization Committee held a meeting to discuss their future course of action. It was decided that the buying program should continue. Accordingly, that Committee continued to meet each month through February 1936. The procedure at these meetings was essentially the same as at the earlier ones. Gradually the buying program worked almost automatically, as contacts between buyer and seller became well established. The Mechanical Sub-Committee met at irregular intervals until December 1935. Thereafter it conducted its work on the telephone.
In the meetings when the Mid-Continent buying program was being formulated it was recognized that it would be necessary or desirable to take the East Texas surplus gasoline off the market so that it would not be a disturbing influence in the Standard of Indiana territory. The reason was that weakness in East Texas spot market prices might make East Texas gasoline competitive with Mid-Continent gasoline in the Mid-Western area and thus affect Mid-Continent spot market prices. The tank car rate on gasoline shipments from the East Texas field to points in the Mid-Western area was about 1/8¢ a gallon higher than from the Mid-Continent field. With East Texas spot market prices more than 1/8¢ a gallon below Mid-Continent spot market prices, there might well be a resulting depressing effect on the Mid-Continent spot market prices. [26] Early in 1935 the East Texas Refiners' Marketing Association was formed to dispose of the surplus gasoline manufactured by the East Texas refiners. The occasion for the formation of this Association was the stoppage of the shipment of hot oil and gasoline as a consequence of a Texas law enacted in December 1934. As long as these refiners had operated on cheap hot oil they had been able to compete for business throughout the Middle West. If they used legal crude at a dollar a barrel, their costs would increase. Their shift from a hot oil to a legal oil basis necessitated a change in their marketing methods. They were already supplying jobbers and dealers of Texas with all the gasoline they could use. Hence, their problem was to find additional markets for the surplus gasoline which they manufactured from legal crude. The Association was to act as the sales agency for those surpluses. Shipments north would be against the freight differential. Therefore, without regular outlets for this surplus gasoline they would have been forced to dump it on the market at distress prices. Their plan was to persuade the major companies if possible to buy more East Texas gasoline and to purchase it through the Association which would allocate it among its members who had surpluses. Neil Buckley, a buyer for Cities Service Export Corporation in Tulsa, was recommended by one of the independents as the contact man. Buckley undertook the job. [27] Thus it was not established that the major companies caused the Association to be formed. But it is clear that the services of the Association were utilized in connection with a buying program by defendant companies. The record is quite voluminous on the activities of Buckley in getting the support of the majors to the Association's program. Suffice it to say that he encountered many difficulties, most of them due to the suspicion and mistrust of the majors as a result of the earlier hot oil record of the East Texas independents. His initial task was to convince the majors of the good faith of the East Texas independents. Many conferences were had. Arnott gave help to Buckley. Thus, on March 1, 1935, Arnott wired a small group of representatives of major companies, who were buyers and users of East Texas gasoline, inviting them to attend a meeting in New York City on March 6th to hear outcome my meeting with East Texas refiners and to consider future action surplus gasoline this and other groups that is awaiting our decision . . . matter of extreme importance. The problem was discussed at that meeting [28] but reliable information was lacking as to the probable amount of distress gasoline, the size of the independents' federal allocations and whether or not such gasoline was going to be manufactured within those allocations. Accordingly Arnott appointed a committee to attend the meeting of the District Allocators [29] on March 13th and to obtain the information. That information was obtained and a schedule was prepared showing the probable amount of surplus gasoline in East Texas and the Gulf, the names of the regular buyers in those areas, and the amounts they might take. Arnott, on March 14th, by telegraph called another meeting in New York City for the next day, saying The question of surplus gasoline which has been under consideration must be finalized tomorrow. At that meeting someone (apparently a representative of respondent Sinclair) arose with a slip of paper in his hand and stated that it had been suggested that each of 12 to 15 major companies take so much gasoline from East Texas, the amounts being read off as to what each company would take. Nothing definite was decided at the meeting. Buckley continued his efforts, talking with Arnott and representatives of other majors. It is impossible to find from the record the exact point of crystallization of a buying program. But it is clear that as a result of Buckley's and Arnott's efforts and of the discussions at the various meetings various major companies did come into line and that a concerted buying program was launched. The correspondence of employees of some of the majors throughout the period in question is replete with references such as the following: buying program in East Texas; our allocation of five cars per day; a general buying movement; regular weekly purchases from the East Texas group; allocations and purchases in the East Texas field; and the like. In 1935 the East Texas refiners named in the indictment sold 285,592,188 gallons of gasoline. Of this certain defendant companies [30] bought 40,195,754 gallons or 14.07%. In the same year all independent refiners in East Texas sold 378,920,346 gallons  practically all of it on the spot market. Of this amount those defendant companies purchased 12.03% or 45,598,453 gallons. Of the 8,797 tank cars purchased by all defendants (except Sinclair) from March 1935 through April 1936 from independent refiners in the East Texas field, 2,412 tank cars were purchased by the present corporate respondents. Every Monday morning the secretary of the East Texas association ascertained from each member the amount of his forthcoming weekly surplus gasoline and the price he wanted. He used the consensus of opinion as the asking price. He would call the major companies; they would call him. He exchanged market information with them. Orders received for less than the asking price would not be handled by the Association; rather the secretary would refer the buyer to one of the independents who might sell at the lower price. Very few cars were purchased through the Association by others than the major oil companies. [31] The majors bought about 7,000 tank cars through the Association in 1935 and about 2,700 tank cars in the first four months of 1936. And in 1935 the secretary of the Association placed an additional 1,000 tank cars by bringing the purchasers and the independent refiners together. The purchases in 1935 in East Texas were, with minor exceptions, either at the low or slightly below the low quotation in Platt's Oilgram, following it closely as the market rose in March, April, and May, 1935; they conformed to the market as it flattened out into more or less of a plateau through the balance of 1935 with a low for third grade gasoline of 4 5/8¢. This was consistent with the policy of the buying program. For the majors were requested to purchase at the fair, going market price. [32] And it is clear that this East Texas buying program was, as we have said, supplementary or auxiliary to the Mid-Continent program. As stated in March 1935 in an inter-company memorandum of one of the majors: . . . with east coast refiners having a program to purchase surplus East Texas gasoline over the next four months, we feel that still further advances can be made in the tank car market and a resultant increase in the service station price.
As a result of these buying programs it was hoped and intended that both the tank car and the retail markets would improve. The conclusion is irresistible that defendants' purpose was not merely to raise the spot market prices but, as the real and ultimate end, to raise the price of gasoline in their sales to jobbers and consumers in the Mid-Western area. Their agreement or plan embraced not only buying on the spot markets but also, at least by clear implication, an understanding to maintain such improvements in Mid-Western prices as would result from those purchases of distress gasoline. The latter obviously would be achieved by selling at the increased prices, not by price cutting. Any other understanding would have been wholly inconsistent with and contrary to the philosophy of the broad stabilization efforts which were under way. In essence the raising and maintenance of the spot market prices were but the means adopted for raising and maintaining prices to jobbers and consumers. The broad sweep of the agreement was indicated by Arnott before a group of the industry on March 13, 1935. He described the plan as one whereby this whole stabilization effort of markets, the holding up of normal sales market structures, the question of the realization of refineries, the working together of those two great groups in order that we may balance this whole picture and in order that we may interest a great many buyers in this so-called surplus or homeless gasoline, can be done along organized lines. . . . Certainly there was enough evidence to support a finding by the jury that such were the scope and purpose of the plan. But there was no substantial competent evidence that defendants, as charged in the indictment, induced the independent refiners to curtail their production.
Before discussing the effect of these buying programs, some description of the methods of marketing and distributing gasoline in the Mid-Western area during the indictment period is necessary. The defendant companies sold about 83% of all gasoline sold in the Mid-Western area during 1935. As we have noted, major companies, such as most of the defendants, are those whose operations are fully integrated  producing crude oil, having pipe lines for shipment of the crude to its refineries, refining crude oil, and marketing gasoline at retail and at wholesale. During the greater part of the indictment period the defendant companies owned and operated many retail service stations [33] through which they sold about 20% of their Mid-Western gasoline in 1935 and about 12% during the first seven months of 1936. Standard Oil Company (Indiana) [34] was known during this period as the price leader or market leader throughout the Mid-Western area. It was customary for retail distributors, whether independent or owned or controlled by major companies, to follow Standard's posted retail prices. Its posted retail price in any given place in the Mid-Western area was determined by computing the Mid-Continent spot market price and adding thereto the tank car freight rate from the Mid-Continent field, taxes and 5 1/2¢. The 5 1/2¢ was the equivalent of the customary 2¢ jobber margin and 3 1/2¢ service station margin. In this manner the retail price structure throughout the Mid-Western area during the indictment period was based in the main on Mid-Continent spot market quotations, [35] or, as stated by one of the witnesses for the defendants, the spot market was a peg to hang the price structure on. About 24% of defendant companies' sales in the Mid-Western area in 1935 were to jobbers, who perform the function of middlemen or wholesalers. Since 1925 jobbers were purchasing less of their gasoline on the spot tank car markets and more under long term supply contracts from major companies and independent refiners. These contracts usually ran for a year or more and covered all of the jobber's gasoline requirements during the period. The price which the jobber was to pay over the life of the contract was not fixed; but a formula for its computation was included. About 80% or more of defendant companies' jobber contracts provided that the price of gasoline sold thereunder should be the Mid-Continent spot market price on the date of shipment. This spot market price was to be determined by averaging the high and low spot market quotations reported in the Chicago Journal of Commerce and Platt's Oilgram or by averaging the high and low quotations reported in the Journal alone. The contracts also gave the jobber a wholly or partially guaranteed margin between the price he had to pay for the gasoline and the normal price to service stations  customarily a 2¢ margin. [36] There is no central exchange or market place for spot market transactions. Each sale is the result of individual bargaining between a refiner and his customers, sales under long-term contracts not being included. It is a spot market because shipment is to be made in the immediate future  usually within ten or fifteen days. Sales on the spot tank car markets are either sales to jobbers or consumers, sales by one refiner to another not being included. [37] The prices paid by jobbers and consumers in the various spot markets are published daily in the trade journals, Platt's Oilgram and Chicago Journal of Commerce. In the case of the Oilgram these prices are obtained by a market checker who daily calls refiners in the various refinery areas (major companies as well as independents) and ascertains the quantity and price of gasoline which they have sold to jobbers in spot sales. [38] After checking the prices so obtained against other sources of information (such as brokers' sales) and after considering the volume of sales reported at each price, he determines the lowest and highest prices at which gasoline is being sold to jobbers in substantial quantities on the spot market. [39] Thus, if he finds that substantial sales are reported at 5 1/8¢, 5 1/4¢ and 5 3/8¢, the Oilgram reports a price range of 5 1/8-5 3/8¢. The result is published in the Oilgram that same day. [40] The Chicago Journal of Commerce publishes similar quotations the day after the sales are reported. And its quotations cover sales to industrial consumers as well as to jobbers. But it was not shown that either journal had published prices paid by a major company as a price paid by jobbers on the tank car market.
In 1935 the 14 independent Mid-Continent refiners named in the indictment sold 377,988,736 gallons of gasoline. Of that output, the corporate respondents purchased about 56,200,000 gallons or approximately 15% [41] and the defendant companies who went to trial, about 17%. The monthly purchases of all defendant companies from Mid-Continent independents from March 1935 to April 1936 usually ranged between 600 and 900 tank cars and in a few months somewhat exceeded those amounts. Major company buying began under the Mid-Continent program on March 7, 1935. During the week before that buying commenced the Mid-Continent spot market for third grade gasoline rose 3/8¢. The low quotation on third grade gasoline was 3 1/2¢ on March 6, 1935. It rose to 4 3/4¢ early in June. That advance was evidenced by ten successive steps. The market on third grade gasoline then levelled out on a plateau which extended into January 1936, except for a temporary decline in the low quotation late in 1935. By the middle of January the low again had risen, this time to 5 1/4¢. It held substantially at that point until the middle of February 1936. By the end of February it had dropped to 5¢. It then levelled off at that low and remained there into May 1936 when the low dropped first to 4 7/8¢ and then to 4 3/4¢. It stayed there until the first week in July 1936. The low then rose to 4 7/8¢, maintained that level until mid-August, then started to drop until by successive steps it had declined to 4 1/2¢ before the middle of September. It stayed there until early October when it rose to 4 5/8¢, continuing at that level until middle November when it rose to 4 3/4¢. The low remained at substantially that point throughout the balance of 1936. During 1935, as the Mid-Continent spot market for third grade gasoline was rising, so was the East Texas spot market. And when in June 1935 the former levelled off for the balance of the year at a low of 4 3/4¢, the latter [42] levelled off, as we have seen, at a low of 4 5/8¢. During this period there were comparable movements on the Mid-Continent spot market for regular gasoline. From a low of 4 3/8¢ on March 7, 1935, it rose to a low of 5 5/8¢ early in June, that advance being evidenced by nine successive steps. As in the case of third grade gasoline, the market for regular gasoline then levelled out on a plateau which extended into January 1936. By the middle of January the low had risen to 6 1/8 ¢. It held at that point until the middle of February 1936. By the end of February it had dropped to 5 7/8¢. It rose to 6¢ in the first week of March, levelled off at that low and remained there into August 1936. By mid-August it started to drop  reaching 5 1/2¢ in September, going to 5 5/8¢ in October and to 5 3/4¢ in November, where it stayed through the balance of 1936. These plateaus are clearly shown by a chart of the market journals' quotations. But that does not of course mean that all sales on the spot market were made between the high and the low during the period in question. As we have said, the quotations of the market journals merely indicated the range of prices (usually an eighth) within which the bulk of the gasoline was being sold. Hence actual sales took place above the high and below the low. Thus between June and December 1935 while the low for third grade gasoline remained substantially at 4 3/4¢ and the high at 4 7/8¢ jobbers' and consumers' purchases [43] ranged from 4 3/8¢ to 5 1/8¢. A similar condition existed as respects regular gasoline. Purchases by the major companies likewise did not always fall within the range of these quotations. In fact, between 85 and 90% of their purchases from the independent refiners were made at prices which were at or below the low quotations in the market journals. [44] There were few such purchases above the high and not a substantial percentage at the high. [45]
That the spot market prices controlled prices of gasoline sold by the majors to the jobbers in the Mid-Western area during the indictment period is beyond question. For, as we have seen, the vast majority of jobbers' supply contracts during that period contained price formulae which were directly dependent on the Mid-Continent spot market prices. [46] Hence, as the latter rose, the prices to the jobbers under those contracts increased. There was also ample evidence that the spot market prices substantially affected the retail prices in the Mid-Western area during the indictment period. As we have seen, Standard of Indiana was known during this period as the price or market leader throughout this area. It was customary for the retailers to follow Standard's posted retail prices, which had as their original base the Mid-Continent spot market price. Standard's policy was to make changes in its posted retail price only when the spot market base went up or down at least 3/10¢ a gallon and maintained that change for a period of 7 days or more. [47] Standard's net reduction in posted prices for the 6 months preceding March 1935 was 1.9¢ per gallon. From March 1935 to June 1935 its posted retail prices were advanced 3/10¢ four times. Retail prices in the Mid-Western area kept close step with Mid-Continent spot market prices during 1935 and 1936, though there was a short lag between advances in the spot market prices and the consequent rises in retail prices. [48] This was true in general both of the subnormal [49] and normal retail prices. To be sure, when the tank car spot market levelled out on a plateau from June to the end of 1935, there was not quite the same evenness in the higher plateau of the average retail prices. For there were during the period in question large numbers of retail price cuts in various parts of the Mid-Western area, though they diminished substantially during the spring and summer of 1935. Yet the average service station price [50] (less tax) having reached 13.26¢ by the middle of April (from 12.56¢ near the first of March) never once fell below that amount; advanced regularly to 13.83¢ by the middle of June; declined to 13.44¢ in August; and after an increase to 13.41¢ during the last of the summer remained at 13.41¢ during the balance of 1935 except for a minor intermediate drop. In sum, the contours of the retail prices conformed in general to those of the tank car spot markets. The movements of the two were not just somewhat comparable; they were strikingly similar. Irrespective of whether the tank car spot market prices controlled the retail prices in this area, there was substantial competent evidence that they influenced them  substantially and effectively. And in this connection it will be recalled that when the buying program was formulated it was in part predicated on the proposition that a firm tank car market was necessary for a stabilization of the retail markets. As reported by one who attended the meeting on February 5, 1935, where the buying program was being discussed: It was generally assumed that all companies would come into the picture since a stable retail market requires a higher tank car market.