Mr. Johnson told Colonel Howard he would have to call him back and let him know. He called back and told Colonel Howard as far as he was concerned the equipment could stay at my place. Colonel Howard told Mr. Johnson I wanted them to still service the account, also. Mr. Johnson said he would have to call him back and let him know if Gulf would service the account. He did not call Colonel Howard back.

Then on Friday morning, May 7, 1965, Bill Crosby, the boy that delivers my gas for Gulf Oil came to my station driving a car instead of the gas truck. He told me he had instructions to pick up the Gulf credit cards I had taken in and he was also instructed not to sell me any gas today. I asked Bill who gave him the instructions and he said that "they" told me. I asked him who he was referring to as "they" and he said Mr. Hatton (who is the distributor) told him. I asked him who gave Mr. Hatton his instructions and he said I guess Jack Hickey as he was at the office in Baxley yesterday. I said, "Bill, do you want to give me that in writing?" He replied, "No; I'm not going to give you anything in writing." I asked him then to call Mr. Hatton and see what he says. So he called Mr. Hatton and I talked to Mr. Hatton and he said that he received a copy of a letter on Wednesday, May 5, 1965, that was written to Mr. Hickey. I asked Mr. Hatton if he would mind reading that letter to me on the telephone. He said that the letter was not available as his wife was not there and she had the letter with her. I told him, "It just means that when I sell the gas I have on hand I will just be out of business completely. It also means I can't sell any gasoline on a Gulf credit card." Mr. Hatton said, "You better let me call Mr. Johnson in Jacksonville and see what he says about this," and I told him, "While you are talking with Mr. Johnson you make it clear to him that you are supposed to send me some understanding by Western Union, collect." I stood by waiting for his reply and he called his truckdriver on the telephone at my station and they talked for some little bit. Then Bill, the truckdriver, told me Mr. Hatton wanted to talk to me. I took the phone and Mr. Hatton told me that Johnson told him not to give me anything at all in writing, that our contract was over at midnight, May 7, 1965. I told Bill he did not have to come at midnight to pick up those cards, that he could pick them up at his convenience.

I told Bill to go get his truck and let's check and see how much gas I have underground. While he was gone for his truck Colonel Howard called me and he said Johnson had just called him and said that he would give permission for me to continue for 10 days, or until May 18, 1965. I asked Colonel Howard, "Did he say I could also accept credit cards," and Colonel Howard said that he didn't know to mention that in detail. So I decided to call Mr. Hatton again in Baxley to ask him if I could continue to honor cards and he said, "Yes; Fred, Johnson has just called me and told me that he was writing you a letter leaving things as is until May 18, 1965."

I have got a copy of the letter that he wrote me, and it is just like a rope that you put around your neck, when you answer his letter he has got you.

Chairman DIXON. We will make that a part of the record if you submit it.

(The document referred to was marked as "Wedincamp exhibit 1" for identification, and appears in the appendix, at p. 967.)

Mr. WEDINCAMP. I will be out of business back home if I submit both copies of it. I have to take one back.

Chairman DIXON. All we need is a copy, if you want to submit it, and take the original with you.

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes.

Chairman DIXON. Mr. Wedincamp, who owns the station's location, the building where you operate? Mr. WEDINCAMP. I own it.

Chairman DIXON. You own it?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. Are you operating as a Gulf dealer through a lease and a re-lease arrangement? Or are you being paid rent?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. They have rebated me a cent on the gallon for about the last 6 years in the form of rent.

Chairman DIXON. Who built the station?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. I did.

Chairman DIXON. Did you build it according to their specifications? Mr. WEDINCAMP. After about 8 years of operation, Gulf Oil Corp., with their architects, furnished the schedule and gave me specifications as to how to remodel according to their desires.

Chairman DIXON. When you installed the tanks in the ground and the pumps, did they furnish those to you?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. And that belongs to the Gulf Corp.?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. How about the equipment, do they-the lift?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. The lift belongs to them, too, and the air com

pressor.

Chairman DIXON. The lift, the air compressor, and the ordinary things that they would furnish to a dealer they furnished to you?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir. But whenever they fix a design as to how to remodel my building

Chairman DIXON. What happens to this equipment under your contract?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. They set it up on a 10-year depreciation basis. And I have had it almost 17 years. And it is fully depreciated. Chairman DIXON. Is it yours now?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. No; they won't sell it to me. But I don't want to buy it, because my building is sitting over it.

Chairman DIXON. What is going to happen to that when you go home, and you are no longer with them, and that is their equipment?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. That's what I want you people to help me decide, whether they have the right to move my building to get their tanks or whether they are going to pay me some damage, or what the story is. I am just a little man, I am not a big corporation. I just work for a living. But I try to do it honestly. And I don't tell something that I am going to do and then get right down to the point and do just the opposite.

sir?

Chairman DIXON. Was there a Holiday Inn built across from you, Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

it?

Chairman DIXON. It is completed?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. And it is in operation?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. Where is this new station, right in addition to

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, right directly in front of me is the Holiday Inn, and just a little bit to the side of that is that Gulf station. Chairman DIXON. Is it a modern, new station?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Oh, yes, sir.

I have got a letter with me-I offered them-I offered Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hickey-I told them that if they had to have a new station, I said instead of building that one over there to put me out of business, give me your specification as to how you want a new station built, and I won't ask you for 1 penny financially to put up just such a station on my lot as you want.

Chairman DIXON. How many islands are in this new station? Mr. WEDINCAMP. Two.

Chairman DIXON. That means two pumps at each island?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. No, sir; there are three at each island.

Chairman DIXON. That is six pumps. How many do you have in your station?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. I have got four.
Chairman DIXON. Four islands?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. No, four pumps.

Chairman DIXON. How many-how much gasoline have you been pumping?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, I was pumping about 17,000 a month until they went down to Horn's Candy Shop just below me and put Gulf pumps in there and made some kind of a deal with them to take Texaco's pumps out and put Gulf's in. That cut my volume to where I imagine I averaged 10,000 a month year-round.

Chairman DIXON. Now, has the new station been in operation very long?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Since about February 1.

Chairman DIXON. And how much of your volume have you lost since then?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, that is the trouble, I haven't lost. I have managed to hold my own.

Chairman DIXON. In other words, 10,000 must be your share? Mr. WEDINCAMP. Sir?

Chairman DIXON. 10,000 gallons must be your share of that local market, they stay with you?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, the people have got to know me there, and I treat everybody honest. But where Gulf has got the hook on me, you see, they are going to take it off. And then the people that I have managed to get to stop there over these years as a stopping point, when they take all the identification off, and then they get to that spot, what are they going to do? They are going to see that place on the other side of the road, and that is where they are going.

Chairman DIXON. Any questions?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. There are a couple of different things that I would like to mention here.

After I got my cancellation notice on the 5th and the 1st, 1965, as to a sign that I have been paying $6 a month on for 6 years-it stands right on the corner of my lot-I pay the current, I don't know who furnishes the sign, but it doesn't say a thing in the world on it but Gulf, that is all it says-but after they told me they were canceling my contract as of May 8, on the 5th month and the 1st day I still got my statement for $6, and I have got it since 1959.

Chairman DIXON. You are still renting that sign?
Mr. WEDINCAMP. It seems like it.

Then a few days ago I had a customer to stop that wanted a truck tire. But on that truck tire-I can buy that tire from a competitive company for $69.19. But if I buy it on Gulf's Jobber Sales Guide Sheet, as it says right here, that same tire costs me $100.66, plus $11.52 Federal tax, which makes a difference of $69.19.

I can't sell many tires like that. That is why I think I am being booted.

Commissioner JONES. Who is the competitor you buy it from?
Mr. WEDINCAMP. The Seiberling Rubber Co.

Commissioner JONES. Are they a retailer, jobber, or what are they?
Mr. WEDINCAMP. They are Seiberling Rubber Co., a producer.
Commissioner JONES. You buy direct from the manufacturer?
Mr. WEDINCAMP. They are shipped to me out of Chamblee, Ga.
Commissioner JONES. And Gulf carries Sieberling tires too?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. No, ma'am, Gulf handles a tire with Gulf's name on it that is manufactured by B. F. Goodrich Tire & Rubber Co. for Gulf.

Chairman DIXON. Have you always handled their TBA products? Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. And you have gone along with their policy or their suggestion?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, if I hadn't-like, for instance, the cards that I have got right here, the Gulf credit cards, if something or other occurs on that Gulf credit card-and it has been that way 17 years-they don't tell you, on that credit card when they bring it back to you, they want to hand it to you with one hand and reach for a check with the other. And you had better give it to them.

Chairman DIXON. No matter what you put on that card you are responsible for credit?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Yes, sir.

Chairman DIXON. Until they do what, give you notice that the card has been canceled?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Say, for instance, you come along and I accept your card, and I put a tire on there maybe it is a Sieberling tireChairman DIXON. Suppose you put a Gulf tire on there. Mr. WEDINCAMP. A Gulf tire?

Chairman DIXON. Yes.

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Well, if I put a Gulf tire-they told me to put Gulf tires on there, but if you put a Gulf tire on there and then there is any complaint from the customer, they are coming right directly to you and asking you a whole lot of questions. And you have got to explain

55-013-66-vol. 1-40

Chairman DIXON. If you were to put a Sieberling tire on there you say they wouldn't even honor that slip, is that right?

Mr. WEDINCAMP. No, if I put a Sieberling tire on there and they know it, they have got it fixed to where when you put a Gulf tire on there you have got to put the serial number of that tire, and when they buy them from the manufacturer of the tire they know what that serial number is. I don't put nothing on there except what they tell

me.

Chairman DIXON. Are there any more questions?

Thank you, sir.

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Just a little more, please.

Chairman DIXON. Go ahead and finish.

Mr. WEDINCAMP. Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, my problem at this moment, after approximately 17 years of adequately and efficiently promoting Gulf products through my independent station, my problem is, am I to be closed up and out of business and added to the unemployed along with four people working for me? What termination acts can be instituted by the Federal Government through the law to permit me to stay in business?

This is my plea to you, Mr. Chairman, for prompt and immediate action.

Mr. Burger, vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, joins me in my plea for immediate relief.

I thank you.

Chairman DIXON. Thank you for coming, sir.

We hear next from United Refining Co., Mr. J. P. Wendell, executive vice president.

Mr. LOGAN. I am Harry Logan, Jr., president of United Refining Co. Before I introduce Mr. Wendell who will present our formal testimony, I would like, with the permission of the Commission, to comment on some points raised in the previous testimony.

TESTIMONY OF HARRY A. LOGAN, JR., PRESIDENT, UNITED

REFINING CO., WARREN, PA.

Mr. LOGAN. The first concerns the health of the independent segment of the refining industry. Several representatives of major companies have testified at this hearing that the independent refiners are thriving and actually enlarging their share of the market. We do not believe this is so. A report recently published by the Interior Department called "An Appraisal of the Petroleum Industry of the United States" contains a number of exhibits, one of which, table 43, indicates that there are 112 refining companies with 30,000 barrels per day or less of refining capacity-this is the criteria established by the Small Business Administration and the small business refiner-and that these companies represented 41.2 percent of the total national capacity as of January 1, 1964.

A similar survey published last July by the National Petroleum Refiners Association listed only 94 companies with 30,000 barrels per day of refining capacity, and indicates that these companies have only about 7.8 percent of the total industry capacity.

Since both of these reports are based on the annual survey of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, dated January 1, 1964, we have made an in