Weathering the Depression
The Great Depression has been called the most traumatic episode of modern history. Frightening and disheartening to many who lived through it, hard times also built character in those who survived.
As Rudy Vallee was crooning "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" in George White's production of Scandals in 1931, real people in Oklahoma and much of the Great Plains were finding that life was just a bowl of dust. Two years of scorching drought and over-farming had left the fields vulnerable to vicious winds. Roads disappeared under moving mountains of dust and dirt, and the skies turned black at noon. Many died from "dust pneumonia." Unemployment hit nearly 13 million nationwide. In New York City alone, there were 82 bread lines open in 1931. People who still had jobs lined their shoes with cardboard to make them last longer. Across the country, poverty was sweeping through the growing middle class for the first time, even as President Herbert Hoover was declaring that "the march of prosperity has been retarded."
In the oil industry, times were just as tough as in the rest of the country. Perhaps more so.
The boom in automobile sales evaporated, despite such persuasive advertising themes as Hudson's revolutionary "axle flex" and Studebaker's "miracle ride." Ads for the 1936 Buick described it as "a drawing room on wheels." But most could not afford new cars, nor could they afford to drive the ones they had.
What really hurt the oil industry — more than the drop in demand for gasoline and other petroleum-based products — was overproduction. The barrel of oil that brought $1.43 in 1929 was priced at 10 cents in the Thirties. The highest price that was reached during the entire decade was $1.24.
The massive outpouring of crude from the new Oklahoma fields near Oklahoma City and Seminole, coupled with the prolific output of the east Texas fields, created an enormous glut on the market. After two dry holes, Dad Joiner brought in an east Texas gusher on October 5, 1930, that opened up 140,000 acres with reserves of five billion barrels. It didn't take long for this production to start flooding the market. Attempts to limit production had been made periodically for years, but none had been effective. The entrepreneurial oil man believed passionately in his inherent "right of capture," the ability to do as he wished with the subsoil minerals in the property he owned or leased.
As prices went down, the output of "hot oil," or oil produced beyond the quotas, soared. In the Oklahoma City field alone, the output of "hot oil" between 1929 and 1940 exceeded 14 million barrels.
In August of 1931, Governor William H. Murray, or "Alfalfa
Bill" as he was known, sent troops into the Oklahoma City field to shut down more than 3,000 wells for almost 10 weeks. But "hot oil" continued to reach the market.
