THE GOVERNMENT: Roosevelt on Oil

Colonel Ernest O. Thompson, chairman of the commission which prorates Texas oil production, last week went to Hyde Park to tell Franklin Roosevelt how confused the industry is: though crude oil production is adequately controlled by the Interstate Oil Compact, lack of control over refining has upset crude prices (TIME, Oct. 24). Saying he was against Government control, Mr. Roosevelt suggested extending the compact to refiners, offered to ask Congress to approve such an extension.As Colonel Thompson took this thought back to the mid-continent oil fields, the industry bitterly noted that the previous day the Anti-Monopoly Committee had launched a sweeping investigation into all present forms of refiner cooperation.

Last week the U. S. Government also did the following for and to U. S. Business:

>Tentatively ended two antitrust suits. The Department of Justice for the second time (TIME, Nov. 22) had charged that Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Corp. and General Motors Corp. compelled their dealers to finance purchases through manufacturer-affiliated finance companies. Last week the Department tentatively accepted a consent decree under which Ford and Chrysler agree to discontinue certain practices. General Motors is expected to fight the indictment in court November 18.

>Tipped its hand on the New Deal thesis that existing patent laws foster monopoly. Intervening in a Supreme Court patent-violation suit against General Talking Pictures Corp. by American Telephone & Telegraph Co., the Department of Justice contended that “public policy cannot tolerate the extension of the patent privilege to control the use to which the consumer may put the article after it has been marketed. It is unnecessary to any legitimate exploitation of the patent, and is a vicious practice which the common judgment of the people will condemn and which the Government must outlaw.”