Biggest Job

As the year 1943 opened, one of the biggest management jobs in the world remained to be filled--the presidency of the two billion dollar Standard Oil Co. (NJ.) left vacant by the death last November of William S. Farish.

When Farish died he left behind him a task that in its scope and importance makes the position of all but the very top Washington politicos look like small change. A big war producer (including synthetic rubber) at home; in the thick of war itself abroad and on the high seas where it commands the largest private fleet in the world; deep in Good Neighbor policy, especially in Venezuela; snapped at by Thurman Arnold for its former connections with Germany's I. G. Farbenindustrie--Standard Oil is the most far-flung industrial empire U.S. enterprise ever put together. It is less a business than a public trust.

Finding the man with the ability and the integrity for this trust has never been easy since Rockefeller I put aside its active management in the early part of the century. Though there is plenty of talent in Standard's executive offices high in Rockefeller Center three out of four likely candidates are either nearing the retirement limit or in ill health. They are R. W. Gallagher, 46 years with Standard but now 62 years old; Wallace E. Pratt, aged 57, one of the nation's outstanding geologists; and Orville Harden, perhaps the most brilliant of Standard's board but in ill health.

Most likely candidate would seem to be tall, big-framed Eugene Holman, now 47 and in charge of all production. Starting with Standard's great subsidiary Humble Oil, Holman became president of Lago Petroleum in Venezuela, Standard's other big crude producer. Holman still maintains a first name basis with many a Texas driller, is also respected in Washington where he has been serving on the Petroleum Industry War Council. Last week it looked as if the mantle of Rockefeller, Teagle and Farish would fall on him.

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