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Show Washington, D. C. STANDARD OIL LOBBY Lobbying will always be practiced in Washington. Recently, however, it has reached new heights. In the pre-New Deal days, lobbyists lobby-ists lobbied to get land grants, lumber lum-ber concessions, and Teapot Dome oil leases. Under the New Deal they lobbied for Public Works contracts, con-tracts, WPA grants, and steamship routes. Today they lobby for war contracts. con-tracts. But. perhaps the most avid, rapacious and lustful lobbying is (or priorities - on the purchase of materials. In this connection, Standard Oil has just managed to get a remarkable remark-able priority rating for the shipment of $14,500,000 worth of steel to Venezuela. Vene-zuela. The story illustrates how a job can be done if you have the lobbyist to do it. In this case Standard Oil is ably represented by Washington attorney John N. Bohannon, who knows his way around, even to the White House. What Standard wanted was steel for its oil wells in Venezuela, and it had the plausible argument that it must keep up Venezuelan oil production pro-duction for the American and British Brit-ish navies. However, other American Ameri-can oil companies also wanted steel (or wells in Texas, Louisiana and California. Also they had the advantage ad-vantage of producing oil which does not require a long and hazardous tanker haul. However, they did not have the advantage of an A-l lobbyist. lobby-ist. For Mr. Bohannon went to Admiral Ad-miral Stark, then chief of naval operations, op-erations, and practically scared bim to death about the danger of losing Venezuelan oil. Stark called Donald Nelson, boss of War Production, and put the pressure on him. Meanwhile Mean-while Bohannon and friends pressured pres-sured the state department, lend-lease lend-lease administration, board of economic eco-nomic warfare and finally the White House. If there was anyone Standard Oil (orgot to high-pressure they were sick in bed. , So Standard Oil got what it wanted, a priority rating of A-l-C, higher than that of domestic oil companies, and the materials have now been shipped. LEWIS PAYROLL The Washington Merry-Go-Round wishes to correct an earlier statement state-ment that John L. Lewis had three relatives on union payrolls whose salaries, plus his own, gave the family an annual "take" of $48,500 from the collections of union dues. We regret to say that on further investigation we find we erred grievously. griev-ously. We apologize to Mr. Lewis for underestimating his capacities and print below the full Lewis fam-ily fam-ily payroll showing that the miner czar has not three but nine relatives rela-tives in cushy jobs and that the family "take" is not $48,500 but $70,500: John L. Lewis, president, United Mine Workers .OOO Kathryn Lewis, daughter, secretary secre-tary treasurer, District 60, U.M.W 7.S004 Denny Lqwis, brother, head of United Construction Workers organizing committee 10,000 i. R. Bell, brother-in-law, C.I.O. controller 4.000 Orin Miller, brother-in-law, superintendent su-perintendent of the U.M.W. office of-fice building In Indianapolis . . . 8,000 Dan Collins, brother in law, C.I.O. organizer 3.600 William Thomas, cousin, superintendent super-intendent U.M.W. building in Washington 8,000 Margaret Llndig, sister-in-law of Denny, U.M.W. stenographer . . J.400 Ann MlUer, daughter of brother-in-law Orin Miller, U.M.W. stenographer J.400 Son-in-law of Floyd Bell, another Lewis brother-in-law, District 80 organizer 3,800 Total Lewis family payroll . .$70,800 (In addition to their big salaries, Lewis, his daughter and brother also have fat expense accounts. What they spend is their Becret No figures fig-ures have ever been revealed, even to union members.) And Still Mxre. Imposing as is this payroll list, it still does not tell the whole story. There is one Lewis relative who is not on a union payroll but who garners a high-bracket income from unions controlled by John L. He is brother-in-law Floyd Bell, an insurance in-surance agent. Representative of a surety company, Bell has what amounts to a monopoly on the. business busi-ness of bonding all national, district and local U.M.W. officers and all C.I.O. officials. His commissions are estimated at $40,000 a year. ' This sum, plus the payroll listed above, would bring the total "take" of the Lewis family up to $110,500 a year. ' MERRY-GO-ROUND Wayne Coy, brainy young White House assistant, is slated for a promotion. pro-motion. The ex-Indiana newsman will be made assistant budget director. di-rector. Coy will also continue as head of the Office of Emergency Management Good news for the cotton grower. Under war stimulation, cotton consumption con-sumption now is around 1,000,000 bales a month, is expected to reach an estimated total of 13,500,000 bales for the year. This is nearly 3,000,000 bales more than last year. |