Mr. BALLINGER. If you can give us a fairly exact figure by how many stations have you been told this story?

Mr. CoxE. How many stations I have been told this story by?

Mr. BALLINGER. When you called on them, how many times have you heard this story, say in the last month or two months?

Mr. CoxE. I would say 20 to 25 times in the last 2 months.
Mr. BALLINGER. By 25 different service stations?

Mr. CoxE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALLINGER. Here in Oklahoma City?

Mr. CoXE. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. They have all told you the same story?

Mr. STEVENSON. There is not anything in the contract with these comapnies that says they cannot sell competitor's goods, is there?

Mr. COXE. I have never seen their contract. I do not know. I know they do not buy my merchandise, whichever is competitive to mine, they say they are forced to buy, due to the fact they have to buy merchandise from the oil companies.

Chairman STEVENSON. Do they say who forced them and what was said about that or why they take that attitude?

Mr. CoxE. They say they cannot.

Mr. STEVENSON. All right. We thank you. (Witness excused.)

TESTIMONY OF EDDIE FIGHTMASTER, ON BEHALF OF OKLAHOMA CITY HARDWARE CO.

(The witness was duly sworn.)

Mr. BALLINGER. Give your full name for the record.

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Eddie Fightmaster.

Mr. BALLINGER. What is your business?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Salesman for the automotive division, Oklahoma City Hardware Co.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you have a complaint to make?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALLINGER. You may proceed.

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. The line of merchandise that my company handles consists of nationally advertised brands, like Autolite batteries, fan belts, du Pont chemicals, and so forth. I get most of my business from calling on service stations. During the war when there was a shortage of almost every item, we worked up a pretty nice business with some of these stations by dividing my allocated batteries and things, helping the boys out. As soon as things are plentiful the Texas Co. and the Midcontinent Co. through their representatives that control their leases have told the boys, "You have to buy Firestone merchandise."

Nothing competitive with them will go.

Mr. BALLINGER. The filling-station proprietors have told you that?
Mr. FIGHTMASTER. The lessees told me that.

Mr. BALLINGER. They have to buy Firestone products?
Mr. FIGHTMASTER. They got to buy Firestone products.

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Mr. BALLINGER. They cannot buy anything competitive with Firestone products?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do the Firestone products cover the field?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Just about in your chemicals, batteries, and so forth.

Mr. STEVENSON. From whom do they say they got those orders?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. Mr. Long, of the Midcontinent Co. is one of them and the representative and the man who signs and passes on the leases, John Bolger.

Mr. BALLINGER. What company?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. The Texas Co. There is a demand of this nationally advertised merchandise. A lot of these customers want it because it is good merchandise. They have tried to hide it and if they catch them they raise cain with them.

Mr. STEVENSON. Is the manufacturer Firestone? Dies Firestone manufacture most of its accessories, or do they buy them from other manufacturers?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. They manufacture most of them.

Mr. STEVENSON. Is that all?

Mr. FIGHTMASTER. That is all. Mr. STEVENSON. We thank you. (Witness excused.)

TESTIMONY OF R. A. LOCKNEY, ON BEHALF OF OKLAHOMA CITY HARDWARE CO.

(The witness was duly sworn.)

Mr. BALLINGER. Give your full name to the committee, please.
Mr. LOCKNEY. R. A. Lockney.

Mr. BALLINGER. What is your business?

Mr. LOCKNEY. City salesman for the automotive division for the Oklahoma City Hardware Co.

Mr. BALLINGER. You have a complaint?

Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Proceed.

Mr. LOCKNEY. I hope the committee will be able to do something about monopolistic practices that we know are going on in the city. For instance, here, let us look at it this way: I am a salesman. You are a filling-station operator. You like me, I like you. We like to do business together. But we cannot. Why? Simply because Mr. Long tells these boys, "Get it off the shelf; anything that you buy from a jobber here in town, get that off the shelf, get it out. That might cause you to lose your lease."

That can be proven.

Mr. STEVENSON. In other words, these filling-station operators have told you that?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is right.

Mr. STEVENSON. That they have been given those directions and threats?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is right.

Mr. BALLINGER. You would make calls on filling stations and sell directly?

Mr. LOCKNEY. I do.

Mr. BALLINGER. How many in the last month or two have told you that? In other words, how many times in that length of time have you been told by individual filling-station lessees that they cannot buy from you because of this situation?

Mr. LOCKNEY. I would say 25 to 30 times, at least. I mean, it is every call you make; it is the same thing. They just say, "Ray, I like you, but I got to do this or that."

Mr. BALLINGER. How long have you been with the company?

Mr. LOCKNEY. I have been with the Oklahoma City Hardware Co. since 1945.

Mr. BALLINGER. Have you during that period of time noticed that this pressure has been increasing?

Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALLINGER. Due to the fact you have lost more and more stations?

Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes; it has been closing in more and more all the time.

Here is another thing. Suppose one of our boys in business here, he goes out and spends $30 for a wheel balancer, he buys his equipment, he hires a man to operate this machine.

What happens? The little man comes out with his big stick. "Get that out; get your sign down; you are not in that business."

There is a man who has his investment in there. It is the same way if he wanted to go into the tune-up business, for instance, which is a drawing card. In other words, if you can get the customer to bring the car in for a tune-up, for this and that, it is helping the major companies as well as the operator himself.

Mr. STEVENSON. Any man who gets a new tire, if he is a good driver, wants that wheel with the new tire on it balanced.

Mr. LOCKNEY. Certainly.

Mr. STEVENSON. He says to the filling-station man from whom he buys the tire, "Will you balance the tire?"

Mr. STEVENSON. Do you mean that he buys a tire and has to go downtown or somewhere else to get it balanced?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is right.

Mr. STEVENSON. If he does not get it balanced, he is liable to have it worn lopsided the first long trip he takes; isn't that right?

Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes; he could wear the tire out the first long trip he makes. That can be very easily done.

Mr. STEVENSON. Why wouldn't they want their filling stations to have this very popular sideline of balancing the tires they sell?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is what we would like to know. That is the thing I cannot understand. For instance, getting back to the tune-up, in other words, if he could take care of that automobile-let us go back again-if he could take care of that car, he could increase his volume of gasoline and oil for his major oil companies as well as make money for himself. Anybody who has money is happy. Those who are being forced are unhappy. It is not a good, healthy situation for anybody anywhere.

Mr. STEVENSON. I just had that experience. I bought a new tire and I wanted it balanced. He said, "I do not do that; I cannot balance that tire; you have to go downtown and look up somebody to balance it."

I have not got it balanced yet. I wondered why that was.
Mr. LOCKNEY. Take a look at it.

Mr. BALLINGER. Have you in your conversations with the lessees of these oil stations ever heard the story that they cannot even hire a mechanic on the premises?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is right. The Midcontinent Petroleum Co. told one station that definitely. He had a mechanic. He had all the room in the world. He was not interfering with his lift; he was not interfering with the greasing of the automobiles in which the major oil companies are interested, and really that should be. They are interested in the sale of oil and gas. This man had enough room to service three automobiles.

He walked into the station and said, "Get that out," and he was out. Here is what the man was left with. He was left with carburetors, he was left with fuel pumps, ignition parts all the way through. This man has got the stock out there. It is dead stock. He cannot do anything. He has no mechanic. Is there anything fair about that? Mr. BALLINGER. There is more than one case of that kind? Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. You have heard of a number of similar cases?
Mr. LOCKNEY. Case after case after case.

Mr. BALLINGER. You have heard of a number of cases where they are not allowed to have a mechanic?

Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Where they still have the stock on the premises? Mr. LOCKNEY. Yes.

Mr. STEVENSON. Do they give any reason for this discriminatory practice, which we might also call a totalitarian practice?

Mr. LOCKNEY. That is wonderful. Totalitarian is right.

The only reason I could get from the man with whom I talked, they say, "You are not in the garage business."

That is true; he is not in the garage business; he never has been; for all the garage did was put on a set of points or a coil or a regulator or put on a water pump. He didn't try to go into a major overhaul. He did not want that. All in the world he was doing was he was building a business for himself by doing these services for his cus

tomers.

In other words, if you drove into a filling station, and your car was missing, if the filling-station operator could go to your motor and say, "Well, I think you have got a bad plug here, I think you should replace it," you would think a lot of him. You would say that that man has the interests of my automobile at heart, in other words, he wants to take care of it. He finds your water pump leaking. He could repair that for you instead of having you come downtown and having it done probably at a higher price.

Those are the things I have been very bitter about and something should be done about them.

Mr. STEVENSON. We thank you.

(Witness excused.)

TESTIMONY OF JOHN M. DANIEL, ON BEHALF OF OKLAHOMA CITY HARDWARE CO.

Mr. BALLINGER. Give your full name for the record.

Mr. DANIEL. John M. Daniel.

Mr. BALLINGER. What is your business?

Mr. DANIEL. Oklahoma City Hardware Co.
Mr. BALLINGER. Are you the manager?

Mr. DANIEL. I am manager of a branch.

Mr. BALLINGER. Manager of a branch store?
Mr. DANIEL. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. You have a complaint?
Mr. DANIEL. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Proceed.

Mr. DANIEL. Well, most of our complaints are on the oil companies forcing the oil stations to purchase their fan belts, batteries, spark plugs, radiator hose, fuel pumps, and stuff like that from them. Mr. BALLINGER. From whom in particular?

Mr. DANIEL. From the oil companies.

Mr. BALLINGER. From whom?

Mr. DANIEL. From the oil companies that furnish the gas that has a lease on the stations. They furnish some of them Firestone products. Mr. STEVENSON. What companies do you know of that to be true in? Mr. DANIEL. There is the Texas Co., there is Midcontinent, Standard, Magnolia.

Mr. BALLINGER. How long have you been in this business of yours? Mr. DANIEL. Since 1914.

Mr. BALLINGER. You say your company sells nationally advertised brands of merchandise?

Mr. DANIEL. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Have you ever made a comparison of your brands with those of Firestone?

Mr. DANIEL. Not as to quality; no, I have not.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you think there is anything inferior about them? Mr. DANIEL. I would not say, because I never tested them, but it does not have public acceptance.

Mr. BALLINGER. Which does not have public acceptance?

Mr. DANIEL. Firestone.

Mr. BALLINGER. Your brands have more public acceptance than Firestone?

Mr. DANIEL. Well, it is the original equipment on a lot of automobiles.

Mr. BALLINGER. It is original equipment on many automobiles?
Mr. DANIEL. Yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Go ahead.

Mr. DANIEL. Of course, a lot of the merchandise that those boys do buy from us, they have to hide it under the counter to keep out of trouble. A lot of places you go and they dig down to the bottom. They have a little compartment, they have it locked up over here. Mr. BALLINGER. Have you personally talked to filling-station proprietors?

Mr. DANIEL. I traveled on the road for about a year and a half myself and I talked to them.