anaheim-gazette 1924-02-28

THE NAVAL OIL RESERVES In response to a message sent him by a meeting of Michigan citizens, expressing confidence in his integrity and judgment in connection with the naval oil reserve leases, Secretary of the Navy Denby sent the following statement of the facts and basic questions at issue in the consideration of those leases: "I have already acknowledged and expressed my gratitude for the telegram signed by you and 225 citizens of Michigan. I have also received hundreds of other letters and telegrams from Michigan and all parts of the Union. Such a demonstration of faith requires that I shall give you the reasons why that faith is not misplaced. When I came into office I was very shortly convinced that the oil reserve lands which had been set aside by Congress for the benefit of the United States navy were being drained by privately-owned wells adjoining those reserves. My conviction that these oils were being drained was based upon a number of reports and statements of those who knew, governmental and other experts. That they were being drained is undisputed. "Congress under date of June 4, 1920, gave the following powers to the Secretary of the Navy: "'That the Secretary of the Navy is directed to take possession of all properties within the naval petroleum reserves as are or may become subject to the control and use by the United States for naval purposes * * *; to conserve, develop, use and operate the same in his discretion, directly or by contract, lease or otherwise, and to use, store, exchange or sell the oil and gas products thereof, and those from all royalty oil from lands in the naval reserves, for the management of the Interior which had control of all the other oil lands of the public domain? As to this question I emphatically assert that the transfer was legal. "Second—Was the execution of the agreements with the Mammoth Oil company and the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport-company legal and done with due authority? I affirm that the leases were legal and did carry out the expressed will of Congress. "Third—Were these leases beneficial to the United States? I answer, they were beneficial. They prevented the further loss of millions of dollars worth of oil. They placed oil on the coast and in the Hawaiian islands where it could be reached quickly in case of emergency. They greatly increased the power of the navy to defend the United States, which in its essence is its principal duty. "The leases can not be held illegal until a court of competent jurisdiction has so declared. They cannot be held not to have been made in accordance with sound policy because the policy was sound and obedient to the expressed will of Congress. They will be shown to have been for the benefit of the United States. "My connection with the transactions from beginning to end was dictated by a profound belief that they were for the benefit of the United States and was as clean and patriotic as any other act of my official or private life." ECONOMY AND DEMAGOGY The Democratic national committee issues a statement to the effect that the tax-reduction plan proposed by Representative Garner in the name of the Democratic minority in the House is a much better plan than the effort exists it is taxes to meet its recurrent Here arises a fence between Garner plan duces taxes in a surplus, or abate Democrats, descent capital rather for the gov't jump in any greater tax reductions publicans, their plan that will go 000." What sort of order to show would deliberate a point where in debt to live? economy is it w to a point when deficit? What if it which advocate in order to c vote? How many in the political such a make-ben and promises well knowing taxes higher as they now are? VACUUM Vacuum furnaces pass beyond th and from the n ceived by the o f agriculture, monstrated its take care of co have heretofore considerable loss dustry in the s It has become fiice among th their product "That the Secretary of the Navy is directed to take possession of all properties within the naval petroleum reserves as are or may become subject to the control and use by the United States for naval purposes." * *; to conserve, develop, use and operate the same in his discretion, directly or by contract, lease or otherwise, and to use, store, exchange or sell the oil and gas products thereof, and those from all royalty oil from lands in the naval reserves, for the benefit of the United States." "Under these powers the Secretary of the Navy was charged with the duty of protecting the oil thus confined to his care. In carrying out the will of Congress I had three courses open to me: (1) to do nothing and guard what would have been ultimately an empty shell because most of the oil would have been drained away from it; (2) to endeavor to create the machinery for handling the situation under the Navy department by governmental drilling, etc.; or (3) to lease the right to drill under proper conditions to private enterprise. In the execution of this last course I had two alternatives, one to lease the drilling privilege and have paid into the Treasury the value of the royalty oil belonging to the navy under such leasing contract, or to retain and preserve the oil above the surface, since it could not be preserved below, for the use and benefit of the United States. "The Interior department has under its jurisdiction 17,622,500 acres of public oil lands already leased to private enterprise. The total naval oil reserve lands now under discussion amount to 51,623 acres. The policy of the administration was coordination of governmental activities and not duplication. Therefore, I took up with the Secretary of the Interior and the President the question of transferring the administration and custody of these naval petroleum reserves to the department of the Interior, reserving the Navy department the general policy as to drilling on such lands. "By executive order, dated May 31, 1921, the President made these recommendations effective. The Interior and Navy departments thereafter entered into agreements with the Mammoth Oil company and the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport company to drill when necessary and to conserve for the use of the navy the petroleum products under terms and conditions favorable and beneficial to" ECONOMY AND DEMAGOGY The Democratic national committee issues a statement to the effect that the tax-reduction plan proposed by Representative Garner in the name of the Democratic minority in the House is a much better plan than the co-called Mellon tax plan. This statement belongs with others which are classified as "important if true." Without entering into a technical discussof of the various schedules of the two plans, it may be stated that two fundamental differences between the plans are: (1) The Garner, or Democratic tax plan, would create a deficit of over $300,000,000, while the Mellon plan would raise sufficient revenue to meet the necessary expenses of the government. (2) The Garner, or Democratic tax plan, would continue to drive men of wealth to invest their capital in non-taxable securities and thereby diminish the taxes which men of wealth pay the federal government. The Mellon tax plan reduces the surtax rate to a point where men of wealth would find it more profitable to invest money in industry, business and other profitable enterprises and pay taxes on the profits they make at the surtax rate fixed by the Mellon plan than they would invest their money in tax-exempt securities. The Democratic tax plan creates a deficit because it is conceived and written not as a revenue measure, but as a political measure. This is proved by the fact that the Democratic leader in the House changed the rate and exemptions in their proposed plan three times within less than three weeks. All of these changes which were made public were admittedly made for the purpose, not of raising revenue or creating a scientific tax measure, but for the purpose of "catching votes." The Garner plan is written solely with an eye to the November elections, regardless of what disillusionment may await the taxpayers after the election. The Mellon plan is written with an eye to the financial condition of the United States government at the end of the next fiscal year. The Mellon tax plan is a scientific readjustment of the present federal tax schedules with a view of rewere for the benefit of the United States and was as clean and patriotic as any other act of my official or private life." By executive order, dated May 31, 1921, the President made these recommendations effective. The Interior and Navy departments thereafter entered into agreements with the Mam-moth Oil company and the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport company to drill when necessary and to conserve for the use of the navy the petroleum products under terms and conditions favorable and beneficial to the government of the United States. They provided for great storage tanks filled with oil at points where naval experts thought they should best be located. These tanks were to be paid out of naval reserve oil. Not a dollar in money came from the Treasury. The contractors built tankage and other works by direction of the navy and under navy specifications and navy control as to expenditures. No profit but only bare cost was allowed in the construction of these tanks. The royalties and other considerations are believed to be the best the government could possibly get. Under these leases the navy will be provided with fuel oil to be used in an emergency, which means war, in a quantity readily accessible, which will probably last the fleet one year. Oil does not deteriorate to an appreciable extent in storage. The defenses of the United States were made greatly more secure by this action. These facts have been well known to the public ever since the transfer to the Interior department was made and the leases were executed. The basic questions are: "First—Did the Secretary of the Navy act within the law when he asked for the transfer of the administration of the oil lands to the Department the general policy as to drilling on such lands." The Garner plan is written solely with an eye to the November elections, regardless of what disillusionment may await the taxpayers after the election. The Mellon plan is written with an eye to the financial condition of the United States government at the end of the next fiscal year. The Mellon tax plan is a scientific readjustment of the present federal tax schedules with a view of reducing federal taxes upon all classes of citizens as much as possible and still leaving the government at the end of the fiscal year with a surplus. The object of any tax measure is to provide revenue. The first essential of any new tax measure to be enacted by the present Congress is to provide enough revenue to meet the operating expenses of the government when combined with other sources of income. The present tax law, together with the Fordney-McCumber tariff, provides enough money to meet the operating costs of the government, with $350,000,000 over. This surplus could be used to pay off the public debt at a faster rate than is now being done, which is a rate of about one billion dollars a year. This surplus could be squandered in appropriations. The policy of the Republican administration is to neither. It proposes to reduce the taxes sufficiently to eliminate the surplus. But it is perfectly apparent that taxes cannot be reduced, in the aggregate, more than the existing surplus, else there will be a deficit. It is not economy, it is not even common sense, to propose a tax reduction program which on the face of it admittedly will produce a national deficit. Such a program is hypocritical, for the moment the de- ANAHEIM GAZETTE had controls of the question the transion of the month Old American Petany legal minority? I illegal and will of is benefil answer, prevented of dollars bill on the islands quickly in greatly invelvy to dech in its way. old illegal jurisdiction can not make in acbecause resident to pass. They run for the transacwas dictate that they United patriotic or priGOGY committee affect that imposed by the name in the than the fictit exists it is necessary to raise new taxes to meet the deficit and to prevent its recurrence. Here arises the fundamental diffeence between the Mellon and the Garner plan. The Mellon plan reduces taxes in a sum equivalent to the surplus, or about $350,000,000. The Democrats, desiring to make political capital rather than provide revenue for the government, immediately jump in any say, "We can make greater tax reductions than the Republicans, therefore we propose a plan that will reduce taxes $632,000,000." What sort of man would it be who, in order to show he could economize, would deliberately cut his income to a point where his family had to go in debt to live? What kind of public economy is it which reduces taxes to a point where the nation incurs a deficit? What kind of leadership is it which advocates this crazy policy in order to catch a few untinkling votes? How much sincerity is there in the political party which advocates such a make-believe economy program and promises lower taxes this year, well knowing such a policy means taxes higher after the election than they now are? VACUUM FUMIGATION Vacuum fumigation is beginning to pass beyond the experimental stage, and from the number of quiries received by the California department of agriculture, it is believed, has demonstrated its ability to successfully take care of certain problems which have heretofore been the cause of considerable loss to the dried fruit industry in the state of California. It has become an established practice among the date growers to treat their product by this method, eight been stated that at one time Mr. Whiteside placed a price upon the groves, during later years none have seemed able to secure definite information as to the owner's price or as to his willingness to sell. The conference of this week will no doubt at least bring out every definite information on these two points, which will give some basis for negotiations. While the entire state will rejoice if the Calaveras Groves are conserved for a national park and while many orders and organizations have lent their interest and co-operation to the plan at various times, it remained for the Stockton Chamber of Commerce to prove its effectiveness by securing action that we all hope may result in the immediate securing of the Calaveras National Park, but should that fail, the conference will no doubt bring out such information and data as would be invaluable should a further campaign be necessary to secure the conservation of the Calaveras Groves. A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL The American people rather pride themselves upon being hard-headed, practical, matter of fact, unsentimental. But there is one sentiment of which no American is ever ashamed; a fervent and burning patriotism. Wherefore it is that the dedication to the memory of the late President Harding, of the second largest living thing in all the world, a giant redwood tree in Sequoia National Park, by Colonel John R. White, superintendent of that reservation, has brought great approval. Joyce Kilmer, gentle poet, who gave his life for his country in Flanders Fields, wrote: Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree." Tarkington, now a Paramount picture and they know whereof they speak. The town has all the qualifications of Hollywood as a place to make pictures and then some more, according to the motion picture people. With three hundred days of sunshine a year, three rivers, a bay, coast line, sandy shore for "Shiek" stuff, a street that would do for the middle west, cotton fields and other conditions Georgetown is an ideal place to film exteriors for motion pictures, according to the information brought back by the Meighan company. This is the first time any motion picture company has worked in Georgetown and the people proved that southern hospitality is no myth. The players in the Paramount company were entertained by the Chamber of Commerce at the old Indigo club, where George Washington was once a guest and were given automobile rides through the town. The Paramount company on several occasions were guests on a 30,000 acre estate on an island in Winwyah Ray. Lois Wilson is Mr. Meighan's leading woman in "Pied Piper Malone." Others included in the cast are George Pawcett, Cyril Ring, Charles Stevenson and Joe Durke. HELPFUL WORDS From an Anaheim Citizen Is your back lame and painful? Does it ache especially after exortion? Is there a soreness in the kidney region? These symptoms suggest weak kidneys. If so there is danger of delay. Weak kidneys get weaker fast. Give your trouble prompt attention. Vacuum fumigation is beginning to pass beyond the experimental stage, and from the number of in quiries received by the California department of agriculture, it is believed, has demonstrated its ability to successfully take care of certain problems which have heretofore been the cause of considerable loss to the dried fruit industry in the state of California. It has become an established practice among the date growers to treat their product by this method, eight filigrometers being in operation for this purpose. This year the California Peach and Fig Growers' association installed four fumigators for the treatment of its pack. The Walnut Growers' association treated some 160 tons of walnut meats last year and will treat approximately the same tonnage this year by this method. This treatment has been applied to nursery stock and 100,000 citrus trees have been treated in the state during the past season. In this connection the state of Arizona has modified its quarantine against California grown citrus trees, and has allowed trees treated by vacuum fumigation to be brought to Yuma for planting on the Yuma Mesa reclamation project. During the past year, forty-two carloads of citrus trees were sent to Arizona for this project. George Hill, superintendent of the Yuma Mesa Development company, has expressed himself as highly pleased with the results and has given it his unqualified endorsement, and states that the total of all injuries for which they cannot account did not exceed one-half of one per cent of the trees treated. CALAVERAS BIG TREES Recent news from Washington would seem to indicate that the efforts of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce to secure the Calaveras Grove of sequoias as a national park are beginning to bear fruit. A conference has been arranged in that city between Robert M. Whiteside, of Duluth, Minnesota, owner of the Calaveras Groves, Congressman John E. Paker and Stephen T. Mather, National Parks director, at which time it is hoped an arrangement may be perfected whereby other government forest lands may be accepted by the owner in exchange for the Calaveras Groves. Efforts and plans to save the Calaveras Groves have extended over some period of years and while it has Wherefore it is that the dedication to the memory of the late President Harding, of the second largest living thing in all the world, a giant redwood tree in Sequoia National Park, by Colonel John R. White, superintendent of that reservation, has brought great approval. Joyce Kilmer, gentle poet, who gave his life for his country in Flanders Fields, wrote: Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree." And, excepting only the General Sherman tree, the President Harding tree is the most beautiful example of God's tree handwork in the world. It seems particularly fitting that two men who gave their lives for their country should be linked in this way; Kilmer; a humble soldier in the A. E. F., whose delicate skill with words will live long after the wounds of war have healed, and Harding, whose skill at understanding people drew a nation together in closer bonds of unity and love. Kilmer loved trees so much that he wrote of them often. One of the greatest trees in the world is forever to be linked with the name of a much loved patriot. Generations yet unborn will revere the memory of him whose name is now given to the huge Sequoia, and will quote again from Kilmer: "A tree depicts divinest plan. But God Himself lives in a man." If you expect to be married long, better not be married "short." HOLLYWOOD OF THE EAST HAS BEEN DISCOVERED The Hollywood of the east coast has been discovered. It is Georgetown, S. C., and the discoverers are Thomas Meighan, Alfred E. Green and Tom Geraghty. This trio was in the town for three weeks filming scenes for "Pled Piper Malone," an original story by Booth PHONE 784 J. Dr. W. W. Adams THE OSTEOPATH Has opened office again and will be glad to meet all of his old friends, and as many new ones as he can at 220 North Olive Street, ANAHEIM, CALIF. She Knows "I am a Domestic Science Graduate and a chemical student from the Normal School. After making the experiment testing various baking powders I never use any except the Royal." Mrs. J. P. ROYAL BAKING POWDER Absolutely Pure Contains No Alum Leaves No Bitter Taste Send for New Royal Cook Book—It's FREE Royal Baking Powder Co., 130 William St., New York Have Your INCOME TAX attended to immediately. Do not wait any longer. Avoid a hurried and uncertain compilation. Returns prepared in concise and complete detail for a nominal fee. Eight Years Experience. ROY N. MENDOZA 200 South Los Angeles St. Phone 366 Santa Ana Monumental Works BEN P. 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