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Ninety Days Inside The Empire: A Novel by William Appleman Williams

Glimpses of An Election

Page 94

"You kind of answered your own question, Cat. If that worker -if that worker who I'd guess is a foreman with a lot of seniority- if that worker knows and isn't raising hell in public then you can figure it out that Crown has capped that well. Our Mr. Crown is a very tough and powerful man, and this is one very big operation he's working on, maybe the biggest he's ever planned."

He seemed to veer off.

"How much you learn about oil at that funny school you went to?"

Cat was distracted by that humor, a bit slow.

"You mean chemistry or technology or thermodynamics -or what?"

"Policy."

"We got some of that about the Navy's concern to control oil from the Middle East and Latin America... Yeah, and about the big crisis when Mexico nationalized its oil just before World War II started."

"OK. The thing of it is that Mexico wasn't ready to run the industry on its own; so while the American companies lost title in the fields they kept right on being in charge of production and marketing. That's the foundation of Crown's big plan.

"He knows that most gas is wasted, to him it's like burning money. He wants to sell the Mexicans gas from his wells here in Texas and get them to build a steel mill somewhere down the coast from Brownsville. For starters he'll take payment in cheap Mexican oil that he can sell at a big profit. But his real kicker is that he'll also buy the steel and barge it up the river to the automobile industry...."

"Wait a minute. Ease your throttle." Cat was falling behind. "I thought they made steel with coal-coke, so...."

"Lots of mills still do, but I told you our Mr. Crown is a special case. He is up on 'most everything, and out in front on a good many.

He helped design some of the drilling equipment that Burton makes, and he's betting on gas and even electricity from gas being the coming thing in steel...."

"They better change the courses back there at what you call that funny school."

"Don't get sidetracked, Cat. If Crown gets his steel with his own gas and cheap Mexican labor, then the automobile people will put pressure on American steel companies and that puts the unions in a vise. Mr. Crown does not think small, he does not think piecemeal, and he does not think out loud in public. He prefers to have you find out after it's done. So what you get is what Burton offered to the NAACP -a public spirited plan for jobs and prosperity for everybody. Which is a very large dose of snake oil."

Cat kept shaking his head, even as he took a good bit of his drink. He was angry, just as he was awed by the implications of it all.

"It sure as hell is as bad as it is big. Jesus! That's worth another special issue of The Freedom News."

"Well, Cat, you are partly right. Whoever breaks it public, whenever they do, is going to get a lot of attention. But if you or me or some other outsider does it, it ain't going to be a friendly pat on the back. Mr. Crown knows just where to whack you on the back of the knee with a piece of pipe so's that bone in front pops out right through your skin. And if he don't get to tell it his way first, then he'll sure as hell do something along that line."

"But...."

"No Buts, Lieutenant Wye. You are not going to talk about this even to Susan or Run-Run. If you break this story, Crown will connect it with Clay and Clay's liberal money will dry up like a camel's bladder.

"You hear me straight, Cat. Clay's got to do good in this election for lots of reasons, but one of the biggest is to build an audience that'll listen to him counterattack after Crown goes public. And I want to nail our Mr. Crown on conspiracy.

"You learn pretty quick, Cat, like how to ring door bells. But this is Lesson Number Two. There's time to be a Dempsey and there's time to be a Tunney. This is time to be a Tunney."

Cat lifted what was left of his drink.

"Judge, I don't like it, but you got my word. I hope you're right."

"So do I, Cat."