Chapter 13

In chapter 13 we are first introduced to Columbus Joiner aka, “daddy”. Joiner was part of the large group of men at this time who were basically con-artists within the oil industry who would send out letters, asking for donations to help find a new oil well and then promised the person a large chunk of change, once the well was up and running. Another huge player in this game was Robert E. Lee who was a descendent of General Robert E. Lee. Lee was able to acquire over $2 million before being caught by federal authorities. Later, Joiner became fascinated with the idea of finding oil in East Texas. Joiner was given the idea from “Doc Lloyd” who wrote out a map for Joiner to show him exactly where to drill. By this time, many people were aware of the scams performed by Lloyd and Joiner and they only laughed at Joiner for trying to go after this idea. Like many other deal makers in the oil industry at this time, Joiner thought of himself as a womanizer and said that every woman had a spot on her neck, that when he touched it, they would write him out a check. However, Joiner did receive enough donations to begin drilling on the Daisy Bradford farm.

After several years of trying, Joiner finally struck it big with his Wildcat on October 3, 1930 and his discovery was known as the Black Giant. Due to all of the oil being drilled, prices plummeted and “teakettles” (pint-sized refineries) produced Eastex gasoline, which was sold at gas stations to make up for the loss of money from oil. Later, Joiner decided to sell all his stocks to Haroldson Lafayette Hunt (H.L or Boy) and received $1.33 million-$30,000 up front but when he found out about Boy’s scam, Joiner issued a law suit but later dropped it and spent most of his money trying to hit it big with another Wildcat but was unable to and died at age 87.

Again, oil prices dropped and any wells only producing only a few barrels a day were shut down. Then in August of 1931, “Alfalfa Bill” Murray, the governor of Oklahoma declared a state of emergency so that all major oil fields would be shut down until oil prices reached $1. Next, on August 17, 1931 the governor of Texas declared war on East Texas and he sent in National Guardsmen on horseback to shut down production in that area. Any excess oil created was known as “hot oil” because it was being smuggled into other states, creating another drop in oil prices. Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, was extremely close with Roosevelt and helped in many of the decisions made in the country dealing with the oil industry. Ickes eventually got into some trouble over a mistress of his who was sending him letters at the White House, and were accidently intercepted by others. After this, Ickes called for Federal investigators to come and examine refinery records, test oil gauges, inspect tanks, and to dig up pipelines in East Texas, in order to stop the “hot oil” crisis. Last but not least, in 1932, Congress passed a law that demanded 21 cents a barrel for crude and fuel oil and $1.05 for gasoline.

An outline for my short essay

Here is what I have so far!

Thesis:
Although there may be some Americans who refuse to ease up on the use of oil, I believe the majority of Americans will continue to conserve oil, even if prices decline, due to related patterns shown in history, the effects of drastic increases in gasoline, food supplies, etc., and the importance of saving our environment from pollution, created by oil.
Main Points:
1.) Similar events in history prove that Americans will continue to be conservative with oil, even if prices drastically decline.
a. Prices have never been this high in the past
b. Increase in gas prices by 20% from 1975-1980 showed a cut of 6% per capita nationwide in gas consumption (The Boston Globe)
2.) Drastic increases in gas prices, food supplies, etc. has created several changes in many families across the country.
a. Over six years of rising prices has forced Americans to change their driving habits
b. Many products used daily contain oil, so the price in weekly groceries has gone up, too (class handout)
3.) Damage reported within the environment is currently being aimed towards the use of oil in the world.
a. Burning of oil is effecting the decrease in ice caps and life among mammals living in cold regions
b. Global warming may take over our environment unless we change our habits
Counter Argument:
Even though statistics show Americans will continue to conserve the use of oil if prices go down, there are also past incidents that occurred which proves otherwise.
a. Oil consumption went back up in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as the price went down
b. Many upper-class citizens have not changed daily routines due to the price of gas


Woks Cited
Krauss, Clifford. “Driving Less, Americans Finally React to Sting of Gas Prices, a Study Says.” New York Times on the Web 19 June 2008, . 10 September 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/business/19gas.html?fta=y.
Krauss, Clifford. “Reaction to gas price rise not what it used to be.” Boston Globe Online 8 April 2007. 10 September 2008 http://www.boston.com/cars/news/articles/2007/04/08/reaction_to_gas_price_rise_not_wh....
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. (OPEC). A brief history of OPEC. 15 September 2008 http://www.opec.org/aboutus/history/history.htm.
U.S. Department of State. Second Arab Oil Embargo, 1973-1974. 21 September 2008 http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dr/96057.htm.
Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Ideas for my First Short Essay

As of now, I am planning on writing about idea number 3 on our assignment sheet. As we talked about it in class on Tuesday, I was very fascinated by the question of whether or not American's will choose to go back to their old habits if gas prices begin to go down. Personally, I think, yes, they will go back to old habits, but here is where my research will come in handy. So far, I've done a little research and I have found two different articles on this topic and one agrees with me (The Boston Globe), that American's will fall back on old habits if prices go down, but the other (The New York Times) disagrees with my opinion and thinks they will continue to be conservative.

"There Will Be Blood"

After watching a good portion of the movie “There Will Be Blood” I am able to relate a lot of what I saw, to the things that I have read about in the book “The Prize”. The main character, Daniel, really reminds me of Rockefeller from the book because he seems so dead set on getting his oil that he doesn’t care who else it hurts. Also, I think the main character is greatly focused on making his fortune versus actually being concerned about what good he can do with the oil, just like Rockefeller was. A similarity I saw between the movie and book was the economic status of the total population. In both movie and book, you have a few select people who are wealthy beyond belief, while the rest of the population is scraping to get by. Also, the men who are set on finding oil, don’t really seem to care that much about family and love, whereas the rest of the men who don’t have the money or oil, care deeply about family and the few possessions they do have.
When it came to how the movie made me feel, I was really just shocked at how conniving and evil some people can be. I hated the fact that H.W. was hurt and lost his hearing in the movie and for what, some extra cash and more fame for his father? I think it’s terrible that Daniel will even put his family’s well-being at risk, just to get a little more oil and money. Another concern of mine was how dirty of a job finding oil was. I didn’t exactly expect it to be a clean job but there were several times when men were completely covered with oil and the only part of them that was visible was their eyes. After seeing the filth of finding oil, it is no wonder so many people died at a young age during this time, because their lungs had to have been filled with horrible, dark “gunk” from mining oil for so many years. Another part of the movie that really caught my eye was the danger involved in trying to find oil. One of the very first scenes of the movie shows a man falling to the bottom of a hole as he was looking for oil. That man was very lucky he survived the fall, especially since he was working all by himself. Further into the movie, we saw a man die from having a huge oil pump fall on his head when he was down in the oil hole. The tools these men used and the way they used them were very dangerous and it seemed that very few, if any, precautions were taken to prevent accidents from happening.