This piece began in KTB #153.

In the US, gasoline had been more than $2 per gallon in some areas. In Germany, gas had cost about 2 Marks per liter, a liter is a little more than a quart, a Mark is equal to about 50 cents, making gas in Germany equal to about $4/gal. Who is responsible?

Obviously, the big oil companies are trying to maximize their profits - but this is not the first time. Who can remember the so-called 'Arab Oil Embargo' of 1973? I remember it well, because I was Inventory Control Director at the corporate level of a major petrochemical company and I can assure you, there was no shortage of feedstock or petroleum at all. This contrived shortage allowed the company to raise their prices by 500% on both their industrial chemicals and the consumer products, including a nationally known brand of automotive anti-freeze. These products all use feedstock coming from petroleum and it was never in short supply.

Who gave us WWII? It was the 'Seven Sisters" in part. The 'Seven Sisters' were the world's petroleum companies, of which Standard Oil was the largest. The Chief Executive Officer of Shell Oil was so pro-Nazi that the British Government had to force him out in order to get fuel for their own military. In an interview in LIFE Magazine in 1940, the Chief Executive Officer of Texaco (Thorkold Reiber) stated that if any German U-boat Skipper saw a Texaco tanker helping the Allies, he had Reiber's permission to sink the Texaco tanker. But perhaps the one that made the most profit out of these world events was Standard Oil, today known as Exxon. When the German Luftwaffe bombed England during the Battle of Britain, they got fuel from Standard Oil. When the RAF went up to protect their homeland, they got their fuel from Standard, When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they had fuel from Standard Oil in their tanks. CHARLES HIGHAM (35-1984) put all this in his book Trading with the Enemy but there is more -- and it is in the records of the United States Senate! What you read in this piece comes directly from the testimony of Hearings before a Special Committee investigating the National Defense Program during the 77th Congress, pursuant to Senate Resolution #71 in 1942.

Committee

The Committee met at 10:38am pursuant to adjournment on Friday, March 27 in Room 318, Senate Office Building with Senator James M. Mead presiding. This piece began in KTB #153.

Here the Senators are trying to determine why executives of Standard Oil (New Jersey) lied to various companies.

Mr. Fulton: “I notice you say that the reason you told the Trojan Powder Co., or rather caused them to be told, that there was no toluol, was that you had made a private arrangement with the Army that duPont should have the bid, which would result in your furnishing the toluol to duPont Co., and their making the experimentation. Is that correct?”

Mr. Farish: “That is correct, sir.”

Mr. Fulton: “Was there any reason that the Trojan Powder Co. could not be informed that the Army had chosen to operate solely with duPont?”

Mr. Farish: “Was there any reason?”

Mr. Fulton: “Yes. Why was duPont in effect given a monopoly on this?”

Mr. Farish: “You will have to ask the Army Ordnance about that, sir.”

Mr. Fulton: “It was the Army Ordnance who suggested that they were going to go with duPont?”

Mr. Farish: “Yes, sir.”

Mr. Fulton: “Was it they who suggested that a false answer should be given to the Trojan Powder Co.?”

Mr. Farish: “No; certainly not.”

Mr. Fulton: “Well, then, was it Mr. Park?”

Mr. Farish: “As I explained, the gentleman who wrote this letter had been told that this was a private matter and he was to say nothing about it, and he elected to take the course he did to try to say nothing.”

EDITOR NOTE - Does it appear that the Standard Oil executives are trying to ‘tap dance’ around an honest and forthright answer?

Mr. Fulton: “Well, he went a little further.”

Mr. Farish: “Yes I agree with you.”

Mr. Fulton: “He said something which was expressly false.”

Mr. Farish: “That is correct, sir, and as soon as some of the other gentlemen who knew the facts learned of it they criticized it, as the letter shows from the notations on it.”

Mr. Fulton: “And was the Trojan Powder Co. informed that a false answer had been given to them?”

Mr. Farish: “I don’t know.”

At this point, Mr. Farish advised the Committee that under the date of 17 April 1942, he received a letter from the Trojan Powder Co. Here is an excerpt from that letter:

‘As my letter to Colonel Harris so fully explains, the only interest that the Trojan Powder Co. had in synthetic toluene in May 1940 was in connection with its efforts to be of help to the War Department in the testing of the suitability of synthetic toluene for the manufacture of TNT and just as the production of this first lot of toluene was conducted by your company (Standard Oil, New Jersey) at a financial loss we similarly assumed that the processing of this synthetic toluene for TNT under War Dept. invitation 672-40-1472 would be conducted at a loss by us, but that this would be justified because it would be helpful to the defense of our country.’

From letter attached to the letter of April 17th from Trojan Powder Co. to Colonel Harris of April 9, the following is quoted:

‘As soon as I learned that I. E. duPont de Nemours were willing to undertake this experimental work with synthetic TNT and were planning to do it, I dropped the matter with quite a feeling of relief.’

Acting Chairman Mead: “Mr. Farish, who is Colonel Harris? Is he with the War Department or W.P.B.?”

Mr. Farish: “He is in the Ordnance Department.”

Acting Chairman Mead: “With the Ordnance Department?”

Mr. Farish: “The Ordnance Department.”

Acting Chairman Mead: “He is not a dollar-a-year man?”

Mr. Farish: “No, sir.”

Acting Chairman Mead: “Was he ever in the employ of Standard Oil?”

Mr. Farish: “No, sir.”

Senator Herring: “Col. J. P. Harris has been in the Regular Army for many years. He is assistant to General Harris, over in Ordnance, under General Harris. He has been the explosives man for the War Department for 25 or 30 years.”

Senator Connolly: “May I intervene there? There are two of them, Colonel Harris and General Harris, both in Ordnance?”

Mr. Farish: “That is correct, sir.”

Senator Connolly: “Colonel Harris is the technical and expert man on explosives, TNT and munitions of all kinds.”

Mr. Farish: “That is my understanding.”

Senator Connolly: “I have had frequent contact with him and I have talked to a very high functionary in the War Department about a matter and he said, ‘Well, Colonel Harris is the man I rely on and the man that decides technical matters. I just volunteered that for the record. He went in the War Department during the World War and has been in the Ordnance Corps ever since and, I think, originally many, many years ago, worked for duPont. I give that for the information of the Senator from New York.”

EDITOR NOTE - Let’s see if we are following this correctly. Colonel Harris once worked for duPont. And duPont arranged with the Ordnance Department to keep all the TNT development business locked in for duPont? And if we remember in past issues of the KTB Magazine, we revealed that duPont owned a large portion of General Motors at a time when GM was building tanks and armored cars for the German Army from their Adam Opel Automobile plant in Germany? And the CEO of the Opel plant, a US Navy Reserve Officer, accepted a medal from the German military while the war was going on (prior to the American entry)? And if we remember other articles in the KTB, Standard Oil was supplying all sides during the war. According to the book ‘Trading with the Enemy’ by CHARLES HIGHAM (35-1984), the fuel in the tanks of the Luftwaffe planes bombing England during the Battle of Britain came from Standard Oil. When the Royal Air Force went up to defend their country, the fuel in their tanks came from Standard Oil and, according to HIGHAM, due to an agreement between Standard Oil and I.G. Farben, some of the money the Brits paid for fuel to defend their country went back to the Hitler Government in the form of royalties. And when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 the fuel in their tanks also came from Standard Oil, from the refineries in Timor, Dutch East Indies. I wonder if all this appears somewhat odd, as if perhaps World War II had a lot to do with profits of international and multi-national corporations.

Keep reading - there is more in KTB #160 next month.