Resolute Jury

In Madison, Wis., slightly less than four months ago, a jury, mostly made up of farmers, began to listen to complicated legal arguments, conducted furiously by a total of 66 attorneys. In succeeding weeks, marching in twos and vigilantly guarded, the twelve jurymen and two alternates were occasionally taken out to exercise on the shores of Lake Mendota. For Christmas they had a tree in the juryroom and as a special favor they were allowed to speak to their families. Their mail was carefully censored. They were not allowed to see The Life of Emile Zola because of the courtroom scenes. But in 16 weeks they had gained a total of 220 Ib.

The little courtroom was packed when Colonel William J. Donovan got slowly to his feet last week. Most important person present, not including the defendants and attorneys, was University of Wisconsin's illustrious Artist-in-Residence John Steuart Curry, his pencil out and ready to catch "Wild Bill" Donovan in action. Colonel Donovan cried: "Gentlemen, we may now see another depression, a new call for men to sit down with their President.

"Several years ago a roll was called of these men. These men answered the roll call in their country's service four years ago and they are all here. It is unthinkable that these men should be punished for doing the very thing the Government asked them to do."

Colonel Donovan was well aware that he was defending as big a batch of U. S. bigwigs as ever was put on trial. Summoned to Madison last October on the criminal charges of conspiracy to raise and fix gasoline prices were 26 major and subsidiary oil companies, three oil trade journals and 56 oil tycoons. By last week charges had been dismissed against all but 16 companies and 30 men. In 1935 and 1936, according to the Government, these companies and men got together to buy gasoline from independent refiners in the spot markets of east Texas and Oklahoma; by contract the price of gasoline they sold to big jobbers was determined by the price that they themselves paid in the spot markets ; gradually, by "golden stairs to greed and avarice." they raised the price of the small quantities of gasoline they bought from the independents, thereby raising the price of the large quantities of the gasoline they sold to the jobbers, which in turn raised midwest retail prices.

Wild Bill Donovan and 56 other high-priced oil company attorneys said that that was precisely what they had been told to do by the NRA.

At last Colonel Donovan called the roll of the defendants. One by one they stood up and faced the jury, an imposing array. In a voice wringing with pathos and indignation, Colonel Donovan demanded: "Are these men who would sell their souls at any price?" The jury contemplated judiciously:

P: Long-haired Charles E. Arnott, who had testified that he gave up his $85,000 job as president of Socony-Vacuum for a $60,000 job as vice president so he could become "chief stabilizer" under the NRA oil code. When NRA ended he urged the continuance of NRA policies. But he was dismayed to find that "chief stabilizer" of the code was now called the "master mind" of the conspiracy. The buying combination had been formed under the friendly eye of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who had the oil code to administer. At one time Mr. Ickes wrote Mr. Arnott a letter urging him to form committees "in a co-operative manner to stabilize the price level." Government Prosecutor Hammond Chaffetz, who for weeks had kept Colonel Donovan from introducing this letter as evidence, finally admitted it as evidence himself. But the "Government authority" it gave the oilmen was, he said, only authority to settle "retail price wars."

P: Melancholy Henry May Dawes, youngest of the four Chicago Dawes brothers and president of Pure Oil Co. C. William G. Skelly of Tulsa, president of Skelly Oil Co.

P: Edwin B. Reeser, president of another of the big Tulsa independents that joined the alleged buying pool--Barnsdall Oil Co.

P: Alexander Fraser of St. Louis, president of Shell Petroleum Corp., and I. A. O'Shaughnessy, president of Globe Oil & Refining Co.

P: Two vice presidents of Standard Oil Co. (Indiana)--Edward J. Bullock and Allan Jackson.

P: Vice President Robert W. McDowell of Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp., President Edward L. Shea of Tide Water Associated Oil Co., Vice President Cornelius B. Watson of Pure Oil, former Vice President Charles L. Jones of Socony-Vacuum, Vice President Harry D. Frueauff of Cities Service Export Oil Co. and of Empire Oil & Refining Co., Vice President and General Manager H. E. Brandli of Cities Service Export Oil Co., Vice President Harry J. Kennedy of Continental Oil Co., Vice President J. W. Carnes of Sinclair Refining Co.

P: Vice President Noel Robinson and J. W. Warner of Tide Water Associated Oil Co., H. T. Ashton and Bryan S. Reid of Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Chairman A. G. Maguire of Wadhams Oil Co., O. J. Tuttle of Empire Oil, R. H. McElroy Jr. of Pure Oil, P. E. Lakin of Shell Petroleum Corp., A. M. Hughes of Phillips Petroleum Co., Arthur V. Bourque of Western Petroleum Refiners Association.

P: Excused from appearing, chiefly for reasons of health, were four others: Squint-eyed Daniel Moran, president of Continental Oil Co.; Frank Phillips, president of Phillips Petroleum, who keeps a ranch and a zoo; sporting Jacob France, president of Mid-Continent; double-chinned President Edward G. Seubert of Standard Oil of Indiana.

The jurymen were properly impressed. The distinguished executives standing up looking at them represented most of the big oil companies east of the Rockies. But despite the eloquence of Colonel Donovan, despite the fact that the two other defense attorneys who gave final arguments were from Wisconsin and presumably knew Wisconsin psychology, it took less than nine hours for them to find every one of the defendants and their 16 companies guilty.

The trial cost both sides a total of some $3,000,000. Maximum penalty possible is a $5,000 fine for each of the companies and $5,000 or a year in jail for each of the men. But before anyone pays a dollar in fines or serves a day in jail the Supreme Court will probably have to have its say.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.