Friday, April 25, 2014

New Freature - Digging Up Koch Secrets


It is Friday Night, and from now on this is the time another tiny chink falls from the wall the Kochs have built between themselves and reality. Confession is good for the soul - if you have one. 

 There are many things the Kochs do not want you to know about them.  Some of these touch on their business practices, some on their unique and ongoing attempts to rent to buy America's political system.  And then there's their personal lives....




The Kochs Share Their Little Secrets on Tar Sands
No. 1 - Just Like Molasses
(In the Continuing Series}

Remember when we told you Tar Sands have the viscosity of molasses? 

 
We Lied. 

 
This protester found out the Hard Way (Excuse the pun)

So, how do we shove it through those Pipes? 

 
No. 2 – The Witches of Enbridge
 


And now, a few sobering facts

 
According to PHMSA, the oil must be heated to move it to the surface, making it more toxic. 

Then, it must be combined with even more toxic solvents to keep it from turning solid in the pipeline. The principal solvents used are Benzene and Toluene. 

Benzene is a known carcinogen.
Toluene is a potent neurotoxin. 

With up to 5% volatile solvents together with deadly hydrogen sulfide and increased heavy metals, these poison pipelines are one of the most dangerous hydrocarbon transport mechanisms known in America. 
 
Wabasca Tar Sands are a thousand times more resistant to flow than molasses when the Bitumen is in the reservoir (5 million cp).

In the Wabasca Field area, the bitumen is a solid asphaltic substance (see bitumen photo below) composed of organic matter and Asphaltenes which by definition are soluble in both toxic benzene and toluene.i
 
Refined Bitumen





 
Source: PHMSA 2012i


iPHMSA July 23, 2012 Transportation Research Board Study of Pipeline Transportation of Diluted Bitumen
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) national Academy of Science Briefing
Daugherty, Linda, Alan Mayberry, Jeff Gilliam http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/dilbit/Daughertyetal072312.pdf





Thursday, April 10, 2014

Debunking the Pew Family Claims

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

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Meet Charles and David's Ancestors



Harry Koch
The Koch lineage in American began with a man drawn here by a generation of stories about the Barons of the Railroad at the end of the Gilded Age.

The brother's grandfather, Harry Koch, came to the US in 1888 from Holland, determined to become wealthy through the opportunity which had made multimillionaires of the Railroad Barons. Harry finished an apprenticeship in printing and took ship from Holland, landing in New York on December 5th . In 1891 he settled in a small Texas town, Quanah, named for Quanah Parker, the last Chief of the Comanche.

The tracts of land and funding which build the lines, coupled with sales of these vast stretches of land turned ordinary men into a new baronage, at the end of the Gilded Age were waning, but Harry seized the opportunity to start a spur which ran through Quanah which was called the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway.

As a member of a prosperous, but numerous, family in Holland, Harry had always seen himself as one of an elite but without the money to give this meaning. This was his entry point to the reality. He would began publishing a newspaper, using this to advertise the short line railroad in which he invested, making himself wealthy.

Quanah Parker, who would die in 1911,was also an investor in the railroad Harry Koch started and his appearance could be depended on to gather crowds or admirers. He and his entire tribe would visit Quanah once a year until his death, coming with their teepees and camping, becoming a magnet for children, especially boys.

Parker's mother, a white girl, had been kidnapped by the tribe when she was nine in 1836 from Fort Parker in Texas. She was taken as a wife by the chief, having three children before she was captured by rescuers. In the same incident her Comanche husband was killed. Cynthia Ann was returned to her family in Texas.

Quanah, orphaned at age 12, survived, though he grieved for his mother, who tried over and over again to escape and return to her children.

Quanah Parker
As a young warrior Quanah earned the respect of whites and Indians by ensuring his people evaded the ambushes laid for them as they were forced on to the reservation. He, himself, became a cattleman on the reservation land, ensuring he and his people were paid for the use of the land when the cattle drives began to move North from Texas across the reservation. Quanah studied the ways of the white man, assimilating himself and then showing his people how to do the same. In this way he lead them a path of survivial and protected their rights while encouraging them to keep their Comanche traditions.

Quanah became a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt and his story was known by everyone in Texas, where he was accorded deep respect by the people of both cultures. In the town named for Quanah, every boy knew his story.

Frederick Chase Koch, the younger son of Harry, ran away from home to live with the Indians according to his youngest son, William. In an article titled, “Palm Beach William Koch's 'Super-Wild' West collection,” appearing in PB Pulse by Scott Eyman, William said, 
"Once, my father ran away from home to an Indian camp, and the Indian chief kept him for a day and sent him home. I'd like to believe that Indian chief was Quanah Parker."[ Note: the link to the article, originally published 11.01 p.m. ET March 3, 2012, was updated 8:55 p.m. ET, November 21, 2014.  I am looking for an original version.  Sign up for updates if you would like to see the original version, which had mentions of the Koch law suit.]

According to local historian, Scarlett Dougherty, Quanah Parker came to town every year during the time Fred was a boy, camping in the teepees they brought with them. Local ranchers supplied beef cattle to them.

Quanah adopted at least one young white boy and was generous with his time, always glad to share the stories of his people. Fred's deep love of the wilderness, and hunting could have its origin in these early experiences with a man viewed as a hero of his times.

When he was 19 Fred began college at MIT after two years at Rice University, effectively leaving home. Although his father called both of his sons home to work for him at the Quanah Chief-Tribune, Fred refused. His older brother, John Anton, left college to work at the paper, with their father, taking over the publication.

In 1922 Fred graduated with a degree in engineering from MIT. In 1925 he joined, and became a partner in Keith-Winkler Engineering, a petrochemical engineering concern in Wichita, Kansas.  The company was renamed the Winkler-Koch Engineering Company that year.  In 1927 Fred invented an improved thermal cracking process for converting heavy oil into gasoline.

A consortium of larger oil companies sued Koch for patent infringement, blocking him from selling his process in the United States. This would send Fred Koch out of the United States to find markets for his process. The company built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

In the early 1930s, Winkler-Koch hosted Soviet technicians for training.

Contacted by the Russian government Fred agreed to install 15 refineries for Stalin, spending time in Russia, where he encountered how Communism impacted its people. Russian engineers with whom he had personally been working were assassinated. Shocked at the inhumanity he saw he became a life long opponent to communism and Marxism. Fred found it incredible people would kill for the sake of an idea and that they were willing to kill their parents for these ideas.

John Anton would remain in Quanah, taking his father's place in 1942, until his death in 1959. Frederick's love of the land, perhaps learned from Quanah, continued. When Fred's business interests had made him wealthy he purchased, over a period of years,  between 1 and 2 million acres of ranch land and 150,000 head of cattle. According to son, William, Fred Koch was, “the largest rancher in the country.”

This was not an enterprise taken up primarily for profit.

Fred Koch, his family and business

Fred Koch
In 1932, Koch married Mary Robinson, and the couple had four sons, Frederick R. Koch, born in 1932, Charles G. Koch, born1935, David H. Koch and David’s twin, William I. Koch, both born in1940. By the late 1950’s, none of his sons had joined him in the oil business, and he became concerned that he might have to sell his oil refineries, and other businesses to outside parties.
The attacks on Fred's cracking process were finally settled in 1952 when Fred won the last of dozens of lawsuits, securing a $1.5 million settlement. He went on to build a fortune around pipelines and refineries.

His friend, J. Howard Marshall, II would say of Fred, about his purchased of a 35% interest in Great Northern at its book price, “(he) always always said he jumped at the chance to buy a refinery for book, didn't hesitate.”

J. Howard Marshall, II would late in his life marry Anna Nicole Smith, leaving her his stock in Koch Industries to the consternation of his heirs and, most especially, the very secretive Koch brothers.

The purchase of Fred's share in Great Northern took place in 1959. Fred knew refineries, paying 5 million for the facility, in cash. It may have been a comment by Marshall which later made Charles Koch aware of the potential to produce high quality products from the “lousiest crude in the world.” Marshall made the comment after Charles had become CEO of the company, now named Koch Industries. Charles took his father's place when Fred's failing health forced him to retire in 1966.

Koch Industries, with Sun Oil, now Suncor, were the first two companies to begin acquiring tar sands property in Canada. These acquisitions began after Fred's death in 1967.
Son Charles had followed his father’s academic interests, and had graduated from MIT with a B. S. degree in chemical engineering. He had gone to work for Arthur D. Little, and was one of its engineering consultants. The senior Koch issued an ultimatum to Charles that if he did not join him in running the Koch companies, he would sell the Koch companies to outside interests. The ultimatum worked, and Charles joined the firm in 1961. 
 
In 1966, Charles became the president of the firm, and in 1967, following his father’s death, Charles became chairman and chief executive officer of the firm. In that same year the firm’s name was officially changed to Koch Industries, the name it is known by today.

Fred C. Koch passed away in November 1967, at age 67. He had had an eventful and successful career. The firm he left behind to his four sons was in the able hands of his son Charles. The firm was not large, by the standards of the industry,then considered a medium sized oil firm, with annual revenues of about $180 million.
The issue of Tar Sands was quiescent, but present. 
 
Although Suncor divested themselves of their original holdings they began reacquiring shares in the 1980s.

Fred Koch in Politics

Fred's wife, Mary, quoted in an article, Survival of the Richest, on the Koch family written by Leslie Wayne in 1989, described him as, “...a strong man who liked to hunt and fish. He was not a society man at all and he taught me to fish and hunt and all that. He liked weekends at the ranch, riding horses, and pitching hay. I hardly ever saw Fred enjoy a cocktail party. He couldn't stand chitchat and gossip. He was quite a rugged individualist."

I
n 1961, Koch would write a book on communism entitled, “A Business Man Looks at Communism”. The pamphlet was 29 pages in length, basically describing the shocking events he had witnessed against the lives of men he had worked with and the conditions in Russia.

In his book he describes Russia as "a land of hunger, misery, and terror". Given a 'handler, ' a man named Jerome Livshitz when he toured the countryside, Fred Koch got what he later called, "liberal education in Communist techniques and methods." Hearing and seeing persuaded Fred Soviets were a threat which America must counter.

According to his son, Charles, “Many of the Soviet engineers he worked with were longtime Bolsheviks who had helped bring on the revolution.” Fred Koch found it deeply disturbing that so many of those so committed to the Communist cause, who he personally knew, were later purged. Any emotionally normal person would share his horror. 
 
According to Gus diZarega, who Charles mentored politically in Wichita, Charles had rejected many of the ideas of the John Birch Society, which his father. Fred, helped start. DiZerega said, “He did not appear to take the Communist Conspiracy stuff very seriously, and, unlike most all in the right-wing, opposed the Vietnam War. But he did take very seriously the argument that big government would inevitably lead to the loss of essential freedoms until eventually we would be in about the same position as the unfortunate subjects of Communist tyranny.”

Today Charles has shown, by his actions, he eventually decided control through corporations was the correct solution. He appears to have ignored the original principles of American government, that the people will hold power locally, governing themselves. 
 
The JBS were comprised of traditional conservatives frightened of communism who did not understand the ideology's relationship with corporations. 
 
These direct experiences were followed by World War II and then events which focused many on the aggressive stance and threats issued by the Soviet Union. 
 
When Nikita Khrushechev said "We will bury you!" to a group of Western Ambassadors gathered at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956 he may have been referring to what he believed was an ideological battle going on between Marxism and freedom but most people viewed this as a direct threat. Khrushechev repeated the quote through the next several years. 
 
Although Marxism and then Communism were actually viewed by corporations as tools for creating the centralized governments they wanted this was not a fact then obvious to the vast majority of Americans. If the real source of the threat had been understood events would have played out very differently. As it was, the Military-Industrial Complex, of which Eisenhower would warn Americans when he left office on Jan.17,1961. But Conservatives had come to distrust Eisenhower. 
 
The use of 'ideologies' as tools for establishing control by corporations ignored the emotional investment of people around the world.



                        Eisenhower Speech, January 17, 1961

The booklet is available online and can be read at this LINK  in its entirety.



The Next Generation

Each of Fred's sons was sent to work on one of the ranches Koch owned. Fred believed strongly his sons should start working early, this likely reflecting his own experiences growing up with Harry as a father. The boys, according to William, were sent to different ranches.

William spent five summers working on the ranch in Montana doing the same chores as an ordinary hired hand for 50 cents an hour. He loved working on the ranch, and hated it when those years ended and he was sent to military school.

The four boys were heirs to two generations of Koch men who were very different but driven by firmly held ideas. Fred was a Conservative. Harry was a corporatist elitist.

Could Fred have learned some of his own values from Quanah Parker, a tough, resilient man who bore extreme hardship and emerged wealthy? At the end of his life Quanah was no longer rich, having spent most of his wealth on helping his people, actions he never regretted. He had helped them survive a transition to a different world and in so doing earned the respect of both whites and Native Americans through his example and generosity.

Fred's father, Harry, had prospered through hard work and the opportunity available to him, as the publisher of a paper, to use the misplaced trust of the public. While his sons were in college Harry wrote to demand they quit school and come work for him. John did as he was asked, Fred refused. He was a man who saw a different future for himself and viewed his sons as resources for accomplishing this.

Are Charles' ideas inherited more from grandfather Harry than from his father, Fred?

Ideas and values are experienced through the filter of the time in which the individual lives. In raising his own sons Fred was unquestionably demanding, insisting they start working early and adhere to the same goals he had set for himself. Enforcing an early work ethic is common to many conservatives and corporatist elitists.

In an article appearing in Fortune Magazine titled, THE CURSE ON THE KOCH BROTHERS ONE OF THE BIGGEST FAMILY FEUDS IN BUSINESS HISTORY MAY SOON COME TO A CLIMAX. YOU THOUGHT $1 BILLION COULD BUY HAPPINESS? NOT FOR THESE GUYS,” on February 17, 1997, Fred is quoted as having written to his sons, "Be kind and generous to one another," also warning the boys their wealth could be "a blessing or a curse."

The four men had, as children, competed for their parents affections and time. Fred was frequently away from home on business while they were growing up and their mother, Mary Robinson Koch was a dedicated socialite who left much of the raising of her children to nannies.

Fred disinherited his oldest son, Frederick, Jr., who wanted to pursue the arts, drawn to the interests he shared with his mother.

Control of Koch Industries has been driven by Fred's choice of Charles as his successor as CEO. David is acknowledged as a loyal adherent to his brother, the other two siblings appearing not to fit into the Koch corporate culture as redefined after the death of Fred by Charles.

Oldest brother Fred, Jr., escaped to school at Harvard, studying the humanities. After receiving his B.A in 1955 Fred, Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Navy serving in Millington, near Memphis and then on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. Back in civilian life Koch enrolled at the Yale School of Drama where his focus was playwriting and from which he received an M.F.A. degree in 1961.

Today, Fred, Jr., is a philanthropist and a collector with several homes in Europe.

Charles said of his brother in an article appearing in the Wichita Eagle on October 11, 2012, by Roy Wenzl and Bill Wilson, Charles Koch relentless in pursuing his goals," "Father wanted to make all his boys into men and Freddy couldn't relate to that regime," explains Charles. "Dad didn't understand and so he was hard on Freddy. He didn't understand that Freddy wasn't a lazy kid-he was just different."

William, the youngest by several minutes, graduated with a bachelors of science, master's, and doctoral degree in chemical engineering all from MIT. He then went to work for Koch Industries, leaving to become the founder and president of the Oxbow Group, an energy development holding company out of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Today William spends time with his avocation for ranching and collecting Western memorabilia. He has commented on his enduring love for a father who was often absent.

The four men are reconciled today, but law suits which were played out over twenty years caused rifts in their relationships, dividing Fred, Jr, and William from Charles and David.

These began with a suit filed by William, with Fred, Jr., in which William asserted his reasons were based in brother Charles' dishonesty. In the CNN Money article by By Brian O'Reilly and reporter associate Patty De LLosa, published February 17, 1997, William is quoted as saying, "It's about money, that's all....Charles is a cheat, and I hope he sues me on it." William later says, "I resent the fact that Charles cheated me all my life."

Charles and his wife, Elizabeth, have two children. The available evidence indicates Charles is very much like his father in his family life but not like him in his personal world views.

Fred adhered to the beliefs of Conservatism. Charles has used the rhetoric of both Conservatism, free market economics, and Libertarianism, but his actions do not reflect that these beliefs are what is running in his brain as an operating system. His ruthlessness cuts across how he does business, how he operates in politics, and how he treats his family.

Lying, cheating and stealing are the hallmarks of the Koch Method, as outlined by employees who claim to have been trained in these practices. These same methods are used routinely with their political campaigns. Using the rhetoric of freedom to justify all of these actions parallels the corporate strategy adopted by the Rockefeller Republicans and other corporatists.

In an article, Charles Koch relentless in pursuing his goals, appearing in the Wichita Eagle on October 11, 2012, by Roy Wenzl and Bill Wilson, Elizabeth Koch is quoted. “What drives Charles Koch most, Liz Koch said, is a conviction that free markets are the only way to create prosperity. Even those who live in poverty, he believes, have more money and more opportunities for jobs if they live in a free-market economy rather than one controlled by dictators or socialists intent on redistributing wealth.

It is impossible to find any reality in the words of Liz Koch. 
 
The Kochs' family culture ignores the underlying realities. The article provided insights into how intelligent people delude themselves. Citing the “millions to charities” the Kochs donated they ignore the fact these donations were largely money given to the political organizations which they try to control, or own, which carry out their political agenda. Additionally, today many people are starting to understand just how problematical the Koch impact has been on our world. 
 
Money can't buy everything. Now, the people are beginning to see what has been happening.
For the Kochs 'freedom' is being able to operate their business without oversight and without being taxed. This is not freedom, just in rhetoric. There is a singular lack of accountability in how they operate.

Until recently it is unlikely Charles, or David, were ever criticized for anything they said. A curious courtesy is generally a benefit of being Koch-wealthy. Now Charles is being scrutinized for the first time in his life and he does not like it, likely because he knows what he is hiding.

Koch Industries and publicly held corporations depend heavily on their relationship with government. Koch Industries receives enormous government contracts domestically and off shore. They were in Vietnam with Halliburton and in Iraq. Government's regulatory process, certainly, not free market, limit their competition and so strangles innovation. They lawyer up when found in fault, violate the rights of individuals with impunity. This, the Kochs, by the evidence, characterize this as 'free market capitalism.' It is better understood as fascism.

Charles and David Koch have spun out an empire, larger than some countries, which hides behind the protections granted private companies and have worked to eviscerate the traditional, localized, form of government adopted by our founders.

This is the legacy of Charles Koch.