Jackson Advocate

Oil Firms Indicted

For "Conspiracy"

Alexandria, Va. - Twenty-nine oil companies have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to violate the anti-trust laws.

Joseph McDowell, justice department lawyer who presented the case before the grand jury, said the indictment accuses the firms of conspiring to fix prices of gasoline and crude oil.

U. S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan said a date will be fixed later for the corporations to enter pleas. No individual defendants were named but the companies included the country's largest firms.

Among those named in the indictment were the Standard Oil companies of Indiana, New Jersey and Ohio, The Texas Co., Socony-Mobil, Phillips, Sinclair, Skelly, Sun, Tidewater, Monsanto Chemical, Ashland Oil & Refining Co., Cities Service, Gulf, Atlantic, Arkansas Fuel Oil, DX-Sunray, Esso Standard,

Humble, Indiana Oil Purchasing, Magnolia, Ohio Oil Co. and Sohio Oil Co.

The companies have branded the charges as "completely false and unjustified."

J. C. Donnell, II, president of Ohio Oil Co., pointed out that there have been only two nationwide crude oil price increases during the past 10 years, each for approximately 25 cents per barrel. In contrast, he said, the cost of living in the U. S. has increased more than 23 per cent during the same period.