The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 4, 1918, Page 5

A 'M MR SAPHEAD OF THE DAILY GRAPHT, CAN You HELP US cLEAR uP TH' MYSTERY OF TH' EXPLO- SION IN TH' TOOTHPICK FACTORY LAST NIGHT ] CAN | CLEAR T UP? SAY LISTEN— BUZZ CHATTER — — BUZZ — WHISPER —— WA = o ——— CHATTER — — ONE HOLR he Senate Passes Oil La BIG MVYSTERY CLEARED ULP | M WIASE. WUXTREE 31! HEH , HEH, TRYING TO PUT IT OVER AGA\N, | /} LATER —Drawn expressly for the Leader by B. O. Foss nd Grab Bill” Progressives, Led By Borah, Stand Out Against Leasing System Which Ultimately Means Giving Monopoly in Natural Resources Washington Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader NE more test for men who claim to be statesmen has been set forth clearly in congress. It 1is: “Shall the public, through city, state or federal government, or shall private monopoly and special privilege, own and develop the twenty billion dollars’ worth of waterpower, coal, oil, potash and other mineral wealth now in possession of the federal govern- ment?”’ Senator Borah of Idaho'rose in the senate on January 7, during debate on the infamous Walsh mineral lands Dbill, and drew, this deadline of public decency. He spoke with great caution, but still he set a new standard by which politicians. will henceforth be measured when they ask the support of the people for their ambitions to sit in state or federal legislatures. S “Under the present condition. of affairs,” h said, “so far as I am concerned, I shall never vote for any bill here in the senate again which has the effect of conveying even by lease these na- tural resources such as oil, coal, and power which are in their very nature monopolies. “I am in favor from this time on of city, state or government ownership and operation of the natural resources, such as oil and power in our western states. It does not make any difference, Mr. President, what clauses we may put into this bill which distinguish and discriminate between the small man and the large man; it will not be very long until the small man will wholly dis- - appear, and the monopolistic interests will con- trol the situation. This will be true under the leasing system just as completely as under the entry system.” That is definite - enough. The senator from Idaho has come to the conclusion, after many years of close observation of the way in which the public property has been grabbed, under various pretenses, by the-Hills, the Harrimans, the Gug- genheims, the Rockefellers, the Weyerhaeusers and the rest of the exploiting crowd, that the “small man’—the ordinary citizen who stakes out a claim or files on a power site—is merely a ground-breaker for the monopolist. HOW SENATORS WORKED FOR STANDARD OIL For weeks before this vote was taken, the mem- bers of congress had been getting circular letters from the Cheyenne branch of the Roxana "Oil company, -declaring that the Walsh bill would turn over the oil lands of Wyoming to Standard 0il, because it did not permit any concern to get enough oil lands to set up an independent refin- ery. Standard - Oil, instead of permitting other oil magnates to come in and compete with Standard Oil in grabbing the public property. - citizen? In other words, the bill would encourage a - < lot of little fellows to act as dummies for Senator Thomas of Colorado and Senator Pitt- man of Neveda, who were strong for the giving away of the coal and oil lands, explained that this Roxana concern was merely the American false- " face for the Royal Dutch Shell Oil company, which is one of ‘Standard Oil’s biggest competitors in Mexico and in Europe. Pittman quoted as his authority, at one stage of the debate, William R. Wheeler of San Francisco, vice-president of the Midwest Oil company, who has been lobbying for this legislation in the capitol building itself and in the most expensive hotel in Washington, for three years past. Wheeler, it seems, had assured Pittman that his Midwest concern was not in any way connected with Standard Oil. But, anyhow, said Pittman: “If the Standard Oil company or any of its subsidiaries are in the same position exactly as the poorest prospector in this country, then I would be ashamed to deny to them the same remedy that I would give the poor prospector.” Senator Thomas also said, in the same con- nection, as to the claims of the Midwest company for “relief” in getting title to oil lands upon which it had made entry, that his neighbors in Denver in whose word he believed had told him the Mid- west was not a Standard Oil subsidiary. ONLY THE GOVERNMENT CAN PREVENT MONOPOLY ‘“But,” he added, ““if the Standard Oil company, monster monopoly that it is, has, as a citizen of the United States, taken advantage of the provi- sions of the law then existing and located public lands and complied with the law, is there any man with a proper sense of justice in his heart who would deny to that company, because it is a Jnonopoly, the same rights that we extend to every If it be shown that the Standard Oil company has sunk a number of producing wells under the law, are they- not entitled to all the benefits of this bill if we pass it?” It was in answer to this showing, that the ‘Walsh bill would enormously benefit the big oil concerns along with giving temporary gambling chances to a few little prospectors, that Senator Borah said: “But I am not deluding myself with the thought that those who, as independent operators, have entered the Wyoming| field and exploited and de- veloped it will long remain in that field, or will long constitute a part of the developing force in the great oil fields of Wyoming. The very na- ture of the oil development will bring it within a very short time under the control of a very limited number of people, probably of one or two companies, and the only entity which can contend against the great monopolies which control these - great natural resources day by day is the govern- ment of the United States itself, or the states. “Hence, I am mnot willing to vote to donate .or grant either in fee simple or by limited title PAGE FIVE o if these natural monopolies to private parties. “I am convinced that the ouly way we can pro- tect the situation and make these natural re- sources inure to the public good and constitute a real benefit to the mass of the people is by grant- ing them to the states or by the government hold- ing them, and one or the other or, in some in- stances, both, developing them, contrelling them, and operating them. Whatever may be said as to public ownership generally, I am sure that these great oil, coal and power possessions now belonging to the government should be held and operated by the public for the public.” WORTH FIFTY MILLION TO WYOMING EXPLOITERS Then Borah came down to actual experience: ‘“Mr. President, what has become of our power sites under the leasing system so far as leases have been made? Who is devéloping the power of the West, and who is controlling it and getting the benefit of it? Has the leasing system changed one iota the effect of this proposition upon the masses of the people? Is there any difference in the prices the people pay under a complete owner- ship or a leasing system? The ultimate consumer will pay, in my judgment, just as much for the use of his oil and for the use of his coal and for the use of his power as he will pay under an abso- lute (private) ownership system. Taking into consideration the fact that we have a public utility commission whose business it is to fix rates, that is especially true. “As to this bill, and I do not say this in criticism of anyone who is the author of it, its inevitable effect, its logical effect, WILL BE WORTH $50,000,000 TO TWO OIL COMPANIES operating in the state of Wyoming. There is no way by which you can prevent it from being worth that amount to them if you grant a leasing system at all, in view of the physical facts which now obtain in the state of Wyoming.” The senate proceeded to pass the bill, never- theless, giving away not merely these huge con- cessions to the big oil companies in Wyoming but permitting billions of dollars’ worth of coal and oil lands and the whole future potash fertilizer supply of the nation to be gathered into the clutches of the Rockefeller-Morgan group in Wall street. The senators who voted for this particular grab of the people’s property were: Ashurst, Bank- head, Beckham, Chamberlain, Fernald, Fletcher, Gerry, Hale, Hollis, Johnson of California, Jones of New Mexico, Kendrick, Knox, Lewis, Lodge, McCumber, McKellar, McLean, McNary, Myers, Overman, Owen, Phelan, Pittman, Pomerene, ‘Ransdell, Robinson, Shafroth, Sheppard, Shields, » Simmons, Smith of Arizona, Sterling, Stone, Thompson, Warren and Wolcott. / The house may yet be stopped from agreeing to’ the steal. : 7% - W ow oo L T VW gy -~ v AR G e AW 8 N R N W IO e S N e