GOVERNMENT: Independents' Day

Oklahoma's Senator Bob Kerr is an oil-rich Democrat who makes no bones about sticking up for the oilmen's interests on Capitol Hill. Last year, he touched off one of the biggest fights of the year with a bill to exempt independent natural gas producers (i.e., those who own no interstate pipelines) from control of the Federal Power Commission. Bob Kerr won his battle in Congress, but suffered defeat at the hands of old friend Harry Truman, who vetoed the Kerr bill.

But last week Bob Kerr and the oilmen got what they wanted—thanks chiefly to another old...

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