OIL: OIL New Giant

Among the nation's 2,584,000 unemployed last month, perhaps the most distinguished was grey-haired Ralph K. Davies of Woodside, Calif. He had joined the Standard Oil Co. of California as a 16-year-old junior clerk, rose to $57,000 (a year) as senior vice president, and was in line for its presidency when, in 1941, he left to run the wartime oil industry for Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. His war job done, Davies found himself relegated to a minor vice presidency at Standard. He resigned rather than let Ickes—who had bought ten shares of Standard of California stock for that purpose—fight for...

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