TRUE PEW LEGACY
“Charity, to Howard Pew,
implied a voluntary commitment;
Otherwise it was just
organized thievery masquerading as good will.”
Mary Stennholz
– Pew Biographer
The myth of the kind-hearted,
philanthropic Pew family was created by the Sun Oil Co and carefully
nurtured and managed by the Pew public relations machine. This
fairytale has been repeated hundreds of times, but it has never been
carefully scrutinized and dissected until now. This is, in part,
because most sources of hard information were archived by the Pew
heirs and their hired representatives. Nevertheless, a close
examination of the published Pew family chronology (when put in the
context of the turbulent times they lived in) reveals a much darker
story.
This myth begins with the story of a
poor farm boy who through hard work and good fortune manages to
strike it rich in the late 1880’s. Then, out of the goodness of
their heart, the Pew descendants create a charitable organization
which benefits society and the less fortunate.
In fact, the only thing fortuitous
about the Pew history is that the original patriarch, Joseph Newton
Pew, was actually born into the middle of the early Pennsylvania
giant oil fields at precisely the right time to take full advantage
of the birth of the petroleum industry. At the time, this area of NW
Pennsylvania was credited with the creation of more millionaires than
anywhere else on earth and Newton Pew had no intention of being left
out!
Joseph Newton Pew (1848-1912)
founder of Sun Oil Co (now SUNOCO).
He was indeed the son of a farmer and
happened to be the youngest of ten children. He did attend school in
Mercer, in NW Pennsylvania, and graduated when he was 18 yrs old.
Newton Pew, as he was called then, taught school for 2 years and then
began work in the real estate business in Mercer. He moved to
Titusville as a real estate broker and insurance salesman to be near
where the oil was discovered and soon began selling and trading oil
properties.
In 1874, J.N. Pew married
Mary Catherine Anderson, the daughter of George K Anderson, a
prominent Titusville banker who owned oil properties in the area.
George K
Anderson, the father of the bride, served as a Republican State
Senator in Pennsylvania from 1874 to 1876, a fact conveniently left
out of the Pew mythology. At the time of his daughter’s marriage to
J.N. Pew, George Anderson was already a prominent oil producer at Oil
Creek near the site of the first US oil discovery made in 1859 in
Titusville PA. However, by the end of 1875, Anderson was insolvent
[NYT 10/30/1875]. He had invested all of his fortune in speculative
oil properties and shaky bank deals. Given that his son-in law, J.N.
Pew, was an oil broker in Titusville at that time, we can only
imagine whose advice he was taking and why Anderson was unable to
steer clear of these bad, high-risk investments. Yet, it is clear
from his obituary and his financial circumstances, that he was
swindled out of most of his money. (The Wellsboro Agitator- August
12, 1891.)
In 1876, when J. N. Pew, was 28, he too lost
money on speculative investments in the Titusville oil exchange. He
later partnered with another banker and successful oil producer from
nearby Bradford, Edward Octavius Emerson, a cousin of Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Their plan was to pipe and sell natural gas to Bradford
which just happened to be the location for the first giant oil field
in the U.S.
Ironically,
in 1878, E. O Emerson bought the large home of George
Anderson, J. N. Pews Father-in Law. He purchased the home in
Titusville when it became available at a Sheriff’s bankruptcy
auction and his family lived there for the rest of his life.
That same year,
a gas well blew out and caught fire at Murraysville, Pennsylvania not
far from Titusville. The flames from the so-called “Haymaker well”
could be seen from nearly 10 miles away and the roar of the escaping
gas was said to be deafening. It took years to bring it under control
and during that time the well operations required capital, but there
was no revenue generated from the well while it was on fire.
Two years later, Pew and E. O. Emerson,
constructed a gas pipe line to Olean, N.Y. and formed the Keystone
Gas Co. Now, all they needed was more gas. While the Haymaker well
was burning, it had little value and was sold to Chicago investors
for about $20,000. Once the well was finally extinguished in 1883,
the Haymaker brothers sold the same well to Joseph N.
Pew and E.O. Emerson and the brothers
attempted to return the deposit made by the Chicago investment group.
The Chicago investors never recognized
the sale to Pew and according to one historian (McElwee 2007) in a
scene reminiscent of the 2007 movie “There Will Be Blood”:
“The
Chicago group sent fifty men armed with rifles and bayonets to
Murraysville to seize the Haymaker well. The Haymaker brothers and
ten other local men [no doubt supported by Pew and Emerson] went out
to the well. In a bloody confrontation on November 26, 1883, Obediah
Haymaker was bayoneted four times and shot once. He died while being
carried back to his home. Michael Haymaker escaped death when the gun
pointed at him by the leader of the Chicago group misfired”
Pew seemed to have been
destined for the oil business. Not only was he born less than 50
miles from America’s first oil well, but due to a faulty gun in the
middle of a bloody battle, he now became part owner of what at that
time was the world’s largest gas well.
Based on the
genealogical notes of Alfred R. Justice, (dated 1930), J.N. Pew’s
father died in 1884 leaving him with an inheritance of just $200.
Nevertheless, that same year he bought more than 100 acres of the
family farm from his only surviving brother (Samuel G. Pew) for over
$5000. He, of course, acquired most of the oil rights at the time of
purchase.
By 1885, J.N.
Pew and his nephew, Robert C Pew of Pittsburgh, formed the People’s
Natural Gas Company together with E.O. Emerson. They became so
successful by selling gas piped to Pittsburgh that they began buying
Ohio refineries and oil wells near the Lima Field. This giant oil
field in NW Ohio eventually led to the establishment of many oil
boomtowns which helped Ohio become the leading oil producing state
until about 1903 It also led Pew and Emerson to incorporate the Sun
Oil Co in Ohio in 1890. This was the same year that the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act was passed which eventually led to the breakup of
Standard Oil opening the way for more competition.
It
was at this point that J.N. Pew and E.O. Emerson appeared to have a
falling out. According to Pew Family Letters (Hagley Museum
and Library Collection), Pew accused Emerson of investing in private
oil interests without involving him. Anderson responded by selling or
reducing his interests in several companies. Pew always wanted to
personally control the majority of shares in any venture and those he
could not have for himself he secured for his other family members.
This was how his sons, grandsons and nephews came to be involved in
the ownership and management of the company.
In 1895, one of
J.N. Pew’s first and most exceptional Mercer students, Isaac
Ketler, reorganized Grove City College as a non-profit institution.
Pew became a supporter and was elected President of the Board of
Trustees. He insisted that his son J. Howard and nephew John G. be
named to the board of Grove City College as young men. This began a
relationship between the Pews and the College which has lasted for
more than a century and continues to the present day. As we shall
see, the Pew family never allowed their educational support to
penetrate the veil of secrecy which surrounded all of their finances
and they went to extraordinary lengths to prevent government
oversight of any kind.
In
1899, at age 60, Emerson supposedly retired and sold his oil and gas
holdings to Pew. This end to the partnership just happened to
coincide with Pew’s interest in Texas oil which coincidentally led
to ownership in the largest oil discovery ever in the lower 48
states.
In January 1901,
the Spindletop oil field was discovered in Beaumont Texas. Spindletop
was America’s first gusher which spewed oil 150 ft into the air and
pooled nearly 100,000 barrels per day (about 4 millions gallon a day)
for eight days. There was so much oil that they had to swiftly build
earthen dams around the oil pools to contain it all. J.N. Pew
responded by sending his nephews (sons of his brother Thomas) to the
gusher as soon as he heard the news. Robert C Pew returned within a
month after witnessing the chaos as the population of Beaumont
multiplied five time and land prices skyrocketed to nearly $1 million
per acre nearest the well. Then Newton Pew sent his younger nephew,
J. Edgar Pew, known in Texas as the “pistol-packing Pew from
Pennsylvania.”
Somehow, he
quickly acquired land around the well for storage tanks as well as
oil leases for production. One method we know J. Edgar used was to
bid on bankrupt companies using money he didn’t have.
According to the
SUNOCO history page, he bid $100,000 for the assets of the Lone Star
and Crescent Oil Company. For some reason he was supposedly the only
bidder, but he needed 25% down to close the deal. To make matters
worse, it was Decoration Day and all the banks were closed. As the
story goes, he walked into a vacant store which was being converted
to a new bank and came out with a check for $25,000 from people he
didn’t know. He was obviously a very determined and persuasive oil
man, but we will probably never know what methods he used to secure
the money.
Also in 1901,
J.N. Pew incorporated the Sun Company in New Jersey and he served as
President for more than a decade. He bought a site in Pennsylvania
along the Delaware River to build his Marcus Hook refinery which Sun
still operates to this day. At that time, the site was the
Lindenthorpe Park, a popular resort for Philadelphians which included
a beach, dancing pavilion, picnic grounds and a half-mile race track
where they also held county fairs and balloon races. Pew purchased
the property from a Philadelphia attorney for about $550 per acre and
immediately began construction of his oil refinery which was
operating in just 5 months.
By 1902, he had
purchased wharf space in Port Arthur, Texas and the first shipment of
Texas oil arrived via a converted ore carrier to the Marcus Hook
refinery. The Pew Family Letters contain ample evidence of a rift
which occurred between Pew and Emerson by the end of the year, likely
over how the proceeds were divided among the various companies for
which the two had shared ownership.
Pew according to
his biographers was never afraid of his competition, especially
Standard Oil and Nelson Rockefeller. “The founder of Sun Oil,
Joseph Newton Pew, was not at all intimidated by the "trustifiers"
of our so-called Gilded Age.”
In 1912, J.N.
Pew was working at his desk when he suffered a likely heart attack
and died at the age of 64. Ironically, his former partner, E. O.
Emerson, died the same year, J.N Pew and his wife had raised 5
children. The oldest son, Arthur Edmond Pew was sickly and died just
4 years after his father. His two younger sons, J Howard Pew and
Joseph Newton Pew Jr. were both given ownership and control of the
company. J Howard was made President of Sun Oil and eventually Sun
Shipbuilding as well, while Joe Jr. was made Vice President.
Unfortunately for this country, they each had much bigger plans in
mind.
J. Howard Pew
(1882-1971) second son of J.N. Pew Sr.
J. Howard Pew
received a degree from Grove City College [his father’s college] at
age 18. A year later, in 1901[the year of the spindletop discovery]
he dropped out of classes at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and joined Sun Oil as an engineer at the Marcus Hook
Refinery. He was soon made asst manager and manager of the company
and ultimately President of the company in 1912 at the age of 30.
In 1915, a year
after the beginning of WWI, he visited Germany, on undisclosed
business, and was impressed by the number of airplanes and ships they
had amassed. At the start of World War I, Germany already had 48
submarines in service or under construction.
In 1916, Sun
began building ships for the war effort in anticipation of the U.S.
entry into the war a year later. Throughout the First World War, they
built ships for the Allies (including 6 oil tankers and 3
minesweepers) and provided much needed lubricating oils and fuels.
Throughout the 1920’s, Sun Shipbuilding built oil tankers for
Rockefeller and Standard Oil Co. Meanwhile their refining capacity
expanded rapidly from 3200 barrels per day in 1920 to nearly 50,000
barrels per day by 1928.
Sun Oil Company,
and the Pew family in particular, did not suffer much during the
Great Depression. An article published in Time Magazine in October
1932 stated that “Last year's net income [Sun
Oil Co.] was $3,107,000 against an average for the past five years of
$5,375,000.” Apparently this was not enough for J. Howard Pew
because that month Sun Oil unilaterally raised the price for Texas
oil by up to 12 cents per barrel. Standard of Indiana released a
statement which said in effect that “conditions did not warrant
even the present prices” and continued price increases could “delay
progress toward a permanent [economic] recovery.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was elected to the Presidency in late 1932 and he
was beginning to roll out his plans for a New Deal which included
regulating the stock market and banking industry, pouring
millions of dollars into work relief programs, Social Security,
guaranteeing workers the right to unionize and collective bargaining.
FDR also promised to cut oil production and fix or freeze prices as
part of the National Recovery Act Petroleum Code. This was not
popular in the Pew’s home state and Pennsylvania was one of only
six states who voted for Herbert Hoover, the incumbent. This is in no
small part due to the efforts of the Pew Family, especially J. Howard
Pew and Joseph Newton Pew Jr.
J. Howard Pew
once said “The hand of
government on business is the cold, clammy hand of death and it must
eventually destroy everything it touches.” Furthermore he said he
“never had any fear that America might be enslaved by an industrial
oligarchy of any type.” This set him and the Pew Family on
a collision course with FDR as they put their economic theories into
practice.
On February 15,
1933, there was an attempt to assassinate FDR in Miami, Florida. The
gunman fired several shots wounding five people, but he missed
hitting Roosevelt. Apparently a woman had pushed the assassins arm,
but several bullets hit the Mayor of Chicago, Anton
Cermak, who later died from the injuries. Two weeks later, the
German Reichstag was burned to the ground, supposedly by a lone,
unemployed bricklayer. Of course, Hitler used the fire to consolidate
his power and that of the Nazi Party.
In Florida, the
FBI immediately claimed that the assassin, Giuseppe
Zingara, also a brick mason, was a lone anarchist from New Jersey.
Within two months, he was tried, convicted and sent to the electric
chair without any investigation into possible deeper political
motives or financial connections.
Major
General Smedley Darlington Butler
By
June 1933, a new coup attempt had been put in motion. The so-called
“Business Plot” involved the use of the 500,000 Bonus Army from
WWI to encircle Washington and force the President to either repeal
New Deal Legislation or abdicate. The plot was spoiled by retired
Major General Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corp from
Pennsylvania who at the time was a vocal critic of military policy
and the most decorated Marine in U.S. History. In 1934 Butler
testified to a Congressional Committee that he had been contacted by
a group of wealthy pro-Fascist industrialists to lead the
overthrow of the government.
He claimed that
he had been approached by representatives of the American Legion and
an offshoot called the American Liberty League to organize the
military for the coup. He was told they had a war chest of $15
million and they wanted him to give a speech at the Legion convention
demanding re-institution of the gold standard. Butler turned down
the bribe, but said he played along to see who was actually behind
the coup and to gather evidence against the conspirators. He even
brought in a reporter from the Philadelphia Record, Paul
Comley French, to substantiate his story
In the early
1930’s, the National Commander of the American
Legion, Ralph T. O'Neill, and the Executive Committee openly praised
Mussolini as a "great leader" in a resolution. At
the time the American Legion was accused of being anti-Semitic when
it called for the end of "non-Aryan"
pollution of "American stock" and an end to non-Anglo Saxon
immigration as a way of controlling "anarchist"
infiltration.
In
1934, several other pro-fascist organizations became active to combat
the New Deal and the policies of FDR but the most prominent was the
recently formed American Liberty League. It was founded and supported
by the Morgans, the du Ponts, and the Pews, the Harrimans, the
Mellons, the Rockefellers and other wealthy
industrialists. J. Howard Pew made a donation of $20,000 and served
on the Advisory Council and its Executive Committee. The American
Liberty League propaganda said social security would "mark the
end of democracy."
The
Pew family also funded the Sentinels of the Republic and the
Crusaders, which labeled the New Deal "Jewish Communism."
The President of the Sentinels of the Republic was
quoted as saying “the Jewish Threat is a “real one” and “I
believe our real opportunity lies in accomplishing the defeat of
Roosevelt.” The Sentinels not only worked against the New Deal and
expansion of the Federal Government in general They fought directly
against Child Labor legislation and argued that the laws could be
used to deny teenagers the right to help widowed mothers support
their siblings.
The Sentinels
specifically targeted the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy
Protection Act, which helped states establish prenatal and child
health care centers. This health plan was enacted in 1921 just a year
after women won the right to vote under the 19th
Amendment. It was based on a report that 80% of pregnant women in the
United States did not receive adequate pre-natal care.
The Army
supported it because during WWI thousands of potential recruits were
rejected due to complications from childhood diseases. The Sentinels,
which also received financial support from J. Howard Pew, were
largely responsible for failure to receive adequate funding for the
program and its ultimate demise.
Also in 1934,
General Butler’s claims were substantiated by the
McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which was a precursor to the House
Un-American Activities, Its final report stated,
"In the last few weeks of
the committee's official life it received evidence showing that
certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist
organization in this country...There is no question that these
attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in
execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
Roosevelt read
the final report in detail, but never released the full contents to
the public. However, .in 1947, Joseph McCarthy who led the Committee
on Un-American Activities claimed "Sworn testimony showed that
the (coup) plotters represented notable families -- Rockefeller,
Mellon, Pew, Pitcairn, Hutton and great enterprises -- Morgan,
DuPont, Remington, Anaconda, Bethlehem, Goodyear, GMC, Swift, and
Sun."
Back in
Pennsylvania in 1934, the Democrats took control of nearly every
political office. As a result of the Great Depression, the state
Republican Party had basically fallen apart. Democrats won control of
both the General Assembly and the Governorship, and even captured the
mayor's office in Pittsburgh. George H Earle III became the first
Democrat in more than forty years to become Pennsylvania governor.
This was too
much for the Pew brothers who after their mother died in 1935, took
an even greater interest in politics.
In 1936, The
American Liberty League launched vicious attacks against FDR with
their leader, Al Smith, comparing Roosevelt to Hitler and Russian
communists and blaming the New Deal for prolonging the depression.
On Oct 31, 1936,
FDR finally responded to the industrialist’s attacks on him and the
New Deal. Just before the election, he gave his famous speech in
Madison Square Garden in New York City which was carried on radio
across the country.
FDR stated
angrily:
"Never
before in all our history have these forces been so united against
one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred
for me—and I welcome their hatred."
Joseph Newton
Pew, Jr. 1886-1963. Youngest son of J.N Pew Sr.
"One
of the men who hated FDR the most was Joseph Newton Pew Jr. (known as
Joe Pew, or alternatively as “Boss Pew” or simply referred to as
“Republican Pew” by Time magazine). Joe Pew was a track and field
star at Cornell. He graduated in 1908 and immediately joined Sun in
the purchasing department. In 1933-34 he went to Wash D.C. to fight
the NRA and the Petroleum Code"
In
1935, according to Time (May 6, 1940)
“Mr. [Joe] Pew put his
convictions and dollars to work. He became Pennsylvania's G. O. P.
boss by the simple but tremendous expedient of putting up the money.”
In Philadelphia,
Boss Pew simply picked the Mayor, put up $200,000, and then blithely
went on holiday. To his surprise when he returned he found his
candidate had been scared out of the race with threats like, "Before
I get through I'll take all the oil out of Pew—Pew . .!"
Pew used his
personal wealth as vice president of the Sun Oil Company to take
control of the Republican Party both in Pennsylvania and to help fund
a national public relations campaign against Roosevelt before the
1936 presidential election. He hand-picked the GOP Party Chairman and
hired a propagandist on a 3 yr contract at $20,000 per year. He then
bought the “Farm Journal” with a circulation of about a
million and later merged it with “The Farmer’s Wife”as a
vehicle for the Republican message.
Boss Pew with
the help of State Attorney General Charles Margiotti began an
investigation of corruption within the Democratic Party leaders, who
were accused of using federal relief funds for patronage.
Backed by Joe
Pew, Republican candidate for Governor, Arthur Horace James ran a
campaign, vowing to undo the "Little New Deal,"
(Pennsylvania’s version of FDR Policies) by cutting taxes, and
improving the climate for business.
Republican Pew’s
political investments began to pay off in 1938 as the Republican
Party in Pennsylvania was thrust back in control by regaining control
of the Governor's office, both houses of the state legislature, a
majority of the state congressional seats, and both seats in the
United States Senate.
Still on the
National Front, the Republicans were never able to break FDR’s hold
on the people and they regularly went down to defeat with favorite
son candidates like Alfred M. Landon (1936), In the election of 1936,
the American Liberty League spent twice as much money as the entire
Republican Party in trying to defeat Roosevelt
Wendell Willkie
ran in 1940 as a popular lawyer opposed to the Tennessee Valley
Authority, but he failed to win the support of the Party Bosses, This
was partly Pew’s fault, because in 1940, Republican Pew, as
predicted, held out for James and never released his 72 votes to vote
to cast a ballot for Wendell Willkie until he was soundly defeated.
“Pew was heard to say that he’d rather see a Democrat in the
White House than a liberal Republican. He and fellow conservatives
withheld their endorsements, and more importantly, their money.”
In 1940, Sun Oil
Company was worth nearly $150 million. According to Time, Joseph Pew
is estimated to have spent “$2,000,000-plus which he has given his
party in the last six years.” Boss Pew called the New Deal "a
gigantic scheme to raze U.S businesses to a dead level and debase the
citizenry into a mass of ballot-casting serfs."
The article
reported that “he is held up in the U. S. Senate as the
personification of corrupt politics.” Boss pew was quoted as
saying "You can't get votes by advertising for them." And
finally "If I'm busted in November, and the Republicans have
won, I'll be satisfied."
Meanwhile, J.
Howard Pew at that time was running ads on the radio against the use
of ethanol as a mixture in gasoline which was cutting into Sun
profit. He told the radio stations to pretend make the ads look like
news items. When the New York Times said it would expose the
fraud, he threatened to pull all of his advertising revenue from the
paper and he forced them to support Republicans.
As War loomed,
the Pews seemed to mainly lose interest in politics. But, FDR never
forgot about the Pews.
In 1939, a
competition was held to build the next bomber for the U.S. Army Air
Corps. A Texan design engineer, Vincent J. Bernelli, easily won with
his radical lifting body design which could carry 2000 pounds more
bombs, used 60% less fuel and could utilize a 50% shorter runway. The
UB-14B aircraft design was also cheaper to build. The Army Air Corps
General stated “it is essential, in the interest of national defense, that this Burnelli procurement be authorized."
Bernelli was
invited to the White House for the final signing of the contract.
During the course of the conversation FDR casually asked Burnelli,
“We understand you have the best aeroplane of the lot, and we're
going to build a lot of them. So I guess you're going to need some
money.” Burnelli courteously replied that this wouldn't be
necessary: “Mr. Arthur Pew of the Sun Oil Company is prepared to
put up whatever we need.” Roosevelt went into a rage and threw
the pen across the room and had Bernelli and his team ejected. No
contract was ever signed and the Army Air Corps report was changed to
recommend any airplane but Bernelli’s. According to a Canadian
aviator’s report:
“Arthur Pew told him [Bernelli] there was no hope as long as
Roosevelt was in power and put Burnelli on the payroll of a
Pew-controlled shipping company as a consultant to await FDR's fall.
War broke out, however, and the accent was placed on aircraft
production--any aircraft, as long as it was not a Burnelli! As a
result, this great genius of American Aircraft design was forced to
vegetate during the years when his designs could have saved thousands
of lives and billions of dollars!!!
With the entry
of the U.S. into WW II, and particularly after Roosevelt’s death in
1944 Sun Shipbuilding did booming business. However, an internal Sun
Oil review found in 1943 that “Sun's lack of goodwill with the
military retarded the wartime use of its catalytic cracking process
which was the only one available in the late 1930s and very early
1940’s” The cracking process made for higher quality fuel at a
lower cost.
Still, Sun
Ship building did eventually build about 40% of America’s oil
tankers and some of its cargo ships were converted for military use.
After WWII, Sun Ships repaired Navy destroyers and scrapped aircraft
carriers becoming one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.
In 1944, Boss
Pew led the “Stop Willkie” campaign and he successfully denied
him the nomination. This was particularly ironic because Arthur E.
Pew, his nephew, was one of Willkie’s biggest supporters.
In 1947, J.H.
Pew resigned as president, but stayed on as a director, while his
brother, took over control of the company. Joseph N. Pew, Jr.
(Republican, Boss Pew) soon retired from politics to become Chairman
of the Board of Sun Oil until his death in 1963.
In 1948, he and
his brother and sisters began the Pew Memorial Foundation. In 1956 in
response to growing government oversight of foundations, they created
the Pew Memorial Trust which would be administered by the Glenmeade
Trust Company.
In 1957 J.
Howard Pew created the Freedom Trust. Its charge, he wrote, was to
"acquaint the American people" with "the evils of
bureaucracy," "the values of the free market," and
"the paralyzing effects of government controls on lives and
activities of people," to "inform our people of the
struggle, persecution, hardship, sacrifice and death by which freedom
of the individual was won." The family also created a trust
for their mother, Mary Anderson.
Also in 1957,
Sun Oil made its first major foreign oil strike in Venezuela. Sun Oil
produced about one billion barrels of that oil until 1975 when
Venezuela nationalized the industry. Authors Gerard Colby and
Charlotte Dennett’s claim in their book, “Thy Will be Done,
The Conquest of the Amazon”, that from early 1900’s until the
1980’s the Pew family, Sun Oil Co., Standard Oil, Placid Oil and
others worked with the CIA and Wycliffe/SIL (the largest U.S.
missionary organization) to acquire Amazonian resources. This
“plundering, largely for oil, resulted in near-genocidal massacres
of indigenous peoples.”
This was the
year that Fortune ranked the top 50 wealthiest people in America and
each Pew brother was listed as being worth 75 -100 million dollars
equivalent to over 500 million dollars today.
In the Mid
1960’s J. Howard Pew was very critical of President Lyndon
Johnson's “War on Poverty.” he argued that federal welfare
programs could only breed more poverty by undermining the work ethic
and making more people dependent on the state for their existence.
David Lincoln
Oct 3, 2009
