AMERICAN OIL PRICES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3441, 22 March 1920, Page 3

AMERICAN OIL PRICES.

PROFITEERING ALLEGED.

INQUIRY BY GOVERNMENT.

Los ANGELES, Feb. 2.

An investigation of the Stan-.l:).rd, Union, Shell and other large oil coinpanies, against which complaints of profiteering have been made, has been started here by the Federal Crm'cl'nment. The Government is ';eprcs3n'-:-ed by Mr C. C. Richards, special assistant to the Attorney-General. ;\lr Palmer and he came to the '_’a.=/rfic Coast to look into the oil situation, and to see if there were any e0n1l)i:1:1~ zions in restraint of trade punishable under the Sherman law. Special agents of the Department of Justice will conduct the inquiry, and will endeavour 1o ascertain why the companies advanced prices from 2/11 a barrel in some places to 7/8. A barre] contains 42:} gallons.

Mr Richards said: “There has been a. withdrawal of 11 of the 22 steamesr carrying passengers in the vicinity of Seattle. They have been compelled to cease operzztions on account of the increase in the price of oil. Passenger fares luave been adVanced,_and the people are complaining. When the Secretary of the Navy advertised for 14,000,000 barrels of crude oil for the use of warships there was a number of bids, but the figures were all the same.”

It is argued on behalf of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce that the prevailing price should be cut in two. A price of 3/-1 21 barrel at 1-05 Angeles would save the Pacific (government and private) more than £10,000,000 a year. True, it would take nearly ii-J2,000,0()() oh’ the annual profits of the Staiidard Oil Company, but it would still have £5,000,000 left. 'l‘hel'c in a stvong feelintg among oil men that the inquiry is likely to have been instituted by men with a bias against the oil industry. The most likely thing is the positive stateineirt made by Mr Bieliartis that the existing shortage of oil in California is no excuse whatever for raising the price.

It must mt‘-(H1, d<.‘clal'od opm'atol's, thaf the P-c-pzu'tlnent is attempting by its own fiat to abolish the law of supply and demand. ()c.lober stafisficts «thaw that fin‘-. State was short of 1111:-'...-f calls 1?). 936,930 b:11'1'01s.

.*'~'n=t.g}l tho price has re amncd s‘;-.t'(l.ary for 18 mon‘hs_. .33 cast‘ cf pl'u]v.(tion has been g;rcl.(ilT,’ Cnham'.ol.

L:.k(:u." unionism has inxtl-.'-<1 the [i(‘(is and I'efinel‘ies; hours tf '.a'nnr haxe been cut from twelve ‘.3 ri;z“z'., tl.l:x~'. ner:(sSil‘atillg‘ tln'.)e .~’.“7.‘Tts instead of two, and wages .lax'e been raised utttlf now dl‘iHol's get u 111- 1 r.2v;~n --f £1 1S:/ for eight hours, wnilst the NWI"-=s‘..' semi-skilled labourer receives a‘min— Immn of £l. T}l‘e prixe nf fluid aw? ref'ulel'_\' mpplivs have gone up to an ah-(rv.al extent.