Resolute Oil

The American Petroleum Institute-- mouthpiece and clearing house of the oil business, composed of 4,300 individuals from all the companies of importance-- met last week in Chicago resolved to take Oil more firmly in hand. Secretary of Commerce Lamont was there to tell Oil that it must regard the public interest, must cease the "mad wastes" of the past. In the air was talk of setting up an Oil Dictator, to govern the petroleum business as baseball and cinema are governed. Mentioned (to his great delight) as possible oil tsar at a possible salary of $250.000 a year, was Vice President Charles Curtis.

But Mr. Curtis' name did not come up last week. The Institute shelved the tsar idea for the time being. Instead it accepted the resignation of Edwin B. Reeser as president and elected Amos Leonidas Beaty to succeed him. More significant, it was decided to give the Institute's president a salary and recognize the post for the real job it is. President-Elect Beaty was quick to dissociate himself from any thought of dictatorship. "I was elected just to do my best," said he, ". . . to keep the industry going smoothly down the middle of the road." Nevertheless observers guessed that, within the limits of the anti-trust laws, the Petroleum Institute under Amos Leonidas Beaty might become more like a "Swope Plan" trade association whose resolutions will be followed and followed up.

No big-company man can be elected head of the Institute. Edwin B. Reeser, twice president, is president of independent Barnsdall Corp. The late Elmer West Clark who preceded him was executive vice president of Union Oil Co. of California. Amos Leonidas Beaty's only position now is a directorship in Phillips Petroleum Co. But he well understands the viewpoint of the big companies. He used to be president of great Texas Co. Texas is his State. His Texan stature and accent mark him in New York, where he now lives, golfs, bridges, flies. A lawyer for 15 years before serving Texas Co. for 20, sometimes he is called (and hates it) "nice old Judge Beaty" although he never sat on the bench.

P: Edward George Seubert, president of Standard Oil Co. of Indiana and chairman of the Institute's marketing division, raged last week against a new racket: gasoline bootlegging. "Gaslegging" is the method of dishonest gasoline retailers who set up mushroom service stations and pocket the 3-c- or 4-c- tax levied by the State on each gallon of gas. Illinois estimates it is being defrauded of $1,000,000 a month, Pennsylvania, an equal amount. The national loss was said to run between $15,000,000 and $50,000,000 yearly, the threat to the legitimate gasoline market was so serious that the Institute was urged to form local committees in each State to aid officials in combating the racket. The motor industry was also expected to cooperate since gas taxes are used to maintain the highways.

P:Retiring President Reeser would not say what his future plans were. Some time ago he was offered the post of "coordinator" of the petroleum industry in California, where the hand of a dictator was urgently needed. To accept this he would have to resign as president of Barnsdall Corp. where he has been a recognized leader of the independent companies against the schemes of the big units. While president of the Institute he was officially neutral but personally, as leader of his company, he was often in sharp disagreement with policies set forth in The Lamp, powerful publication of big Standard Oil of New Jersey.

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