Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1973)
? . Photo s by Josh Marquis Lord Alfred (right) lost a duel to challenger Sir James on the law school patio Thursday. But when the fencing match was over, there were no damsels rescued or black knights vanquished. Professor Alfred Rubin (two time member of the U.S. Olympic team) had merely lost to first year law student James Cartwright and a little money had been raised for the school’s library fund. Lawyers charge major oil dealers trying to drive out independents SALEM (Special) — A special hearing of the House Trans portation Committee Thursday was the scene of charges by two Washington, D.C. lawyers that the burgeoning gas crisis is an “artificial shortage” designed by major oil companies to drive independent dealers out of business. Martin Lobel, a lawyer specializing in oil laws and the Washington editor of the “Con sumer Advocate” said that the “major oil companies can’t compete on the open market with independents so they have shut off the gas supply to independent dealers.” Lobel said that 562 independent gasoline dealers across the country have already closed because of gasoline shortages and between 1300 and 1400 more are expected to close within the next two weeks if the situation is not alleviated. The major gas companies, he said, are supplying their in company customers first and independents last. Clarence Ditlow, a Nader Research Group lawyer from Washington, D C., said the major oil companies have been trying to eliminate independents with various methods, this “contrived shortage” being the latest. First, he said, the major oil companies set up their own bulk and cheap stations to undercut the bargain market. He said that since that didn’t work, the major oil companies started cutting back on supplies. He stated that the independent dealers inhibit major oil com panies from excessive price raises, keeping a balance be tween the power of the large monopolies and the consumers. The current oil shortage is an attempt to enlarge their monopolies, he said. In addition, both Ditlow and Lobel charged major oil com panies are also conspiring to control the output of refineries. Lobel said some independent refineries have been forced to close down because they were unable to get crude oil through pipelines owned by the major oil companies. He said the in dependents want crude and have the capacity to help alleviate the shortage, but can’t get the oil. Ditlow said that his research group had information from a “reliable” source that some independent refineries have been forced to sell their products to major oil companies instead of independent dealers. He said the companies threatened to cut off supplies of crude oil unless the refineries complied. Lobel recommended ti.e committee study a bill that would force gas companies to supply all dealers on a ratio basis. A similar bill has already passed one house, the Minnesota legislature. The bill would mandate all oil suppliers to allocate the same percentages used as before the gas crisis. Lobel also recommended that the committee draft legislation to force oil companies to publicly file detailed sale and quantity data to iallow anti-trust suit studies. He -recommended the Attorney General’s office make an anti-trust investigation of the pipelines supplying Oregon with oil, all of which are owned by major companies. He said the state should find some way to make the pipelines common carriers and remove them from major oil company domination. Die to Hixon’s economic policies t the II.S. dollar devaluation OUR PRICES HAVE TO OO UP 1712 Willamette 616-13119 Honrs 10-5 Mon.-Sat. MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS Oregon daily emerald CALCUTTA For Kipling, Calcutta was the supreme city of the Empire. It was founded by the East India Company in 1690 and in 1774 made official capital of the British Empire in India. The poet was one of the first Westerners to see the city s manifold horrors within its “magnificence,” and to give these horrors poetic expression, even though there were some “which could not be written or hinted at . . . The film dramatizes universal human problems as if it were a Greek tragedy. The population crisis and its ac companying ecological catastrophes are set in front of the audience and the effect is electric. One is struck with the ways in which CALCUTTA echoes the sentiments of Kipling’s best writing. Malle finds now. as Kipling did then, a “City of Dreadful Night,” bypassed by time, yet existing still. In the daily living conditions of its eight million inhabitants, in the overwhelming presence of religion, in Calcutta’s relation to the rest of India, the film finds the city’s quality of immutability. If conditions were “impossible” twenty yeare ago, they are now even more impossible; this is the harsh irony of Calcutta and, to some observers, also her fate. In the same way that Sartre asks his readersto “have the courage” to read Fanon, so does CALCUTTA reqiure courage in its viewing. In watching and listening carefully to the film, one risks opening himself to new thoughts about the world and its problems. CALCUTTA insists on the integrity of its images - and these images are, throughout, those of humanity. They are honest, clear and frightening. TH€ Umi/€RSITY FILM SoCKTY presents Louis Malle’s CALCUTTA Tonight, May 18, 8:00
