Once upon a time, people who
held elected office used to strive to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Back
in those halcyon days, we were concerned with corruption and ethics. There were
big public investigations. There were legal charges and fines. People went to
prison.
Wherever there is any kind of
power there is the possibility of corruption. During the Grant administration,
the Whiskey Ring scandal was exposed in 1875. Whiskey distillers were bribing
government officials who, in turn, helped the distillers evade federal taxes on
their product. Millions of dollars in federal taxes were diverted. Orville
Babcock, private secretary to President Grant was indicted as a member of the
ring, which contributed (along with other scandals) to his administration being
seen as emblematic of corruption.
The Teapot Dome scandal also
involved bribery, and took place between 1921-1922, during the Harding
administration. The US Navy converted from using coal to fuel oil. President
Taft designated several oil producing areas as Naval Oil Reserves. In 1921,
President Harding issued an executive order that turned control of the Teapot
Dome Oil Field in Wyoming and the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Oil Fields in
California from the Dept. of the Navy to the Dept. of the Interior. This was
implemented in 1922 at the request of Interior Secretary Albert Fall. Later in
the year, Fall leased oil production rights at Teapot Dome to Mammoth Oil, a
subsidy of Sinclair Oil. He leased the Elk Hills reserve to Pan American
Petroleum and Transport Company. There was no competitive bidding in either
case. Fall became a wealthy man, after receiving gifts from the executives in
both companies that would today be worth $5.42 million. The sudden improvement
in his standard of living brought about his downfall. The leases themselves
were not illegal. The secret deals and the bribery were.
There was an investigation. Other oil companies were miffed about the no bid licenses that had been granted, and Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin led an investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands. Fall had done a good job of covering his tracks, but Edward Doheny of Pan American Petroleum had given Fall a no-interest loan of $100,000. Once that loan (bribe) was discovered, Fall was finished. He was found guilty of accepting bribes. Edward Doheny was acquitted of paying bribes to Fall.
There was an investigation. Other oil companies were miffed about the no bid licenses that had been granted, and Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin led an investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands. Fall had done a good job of covering his tracks, but Edward Doheny of Pan American Petroleum had given Fall a no-interest loan of $100,000. Once that loan (bribe) was discovered, Fall was finished. He was found guilty of accepting bribes. Edward Doheny was acquitted of paying bribes to Fall.
Corporations will always find
ways to bribe public officials into aiding their pursuit of lining their
pockets. Coal, oil, and uranium aren’t the only natural resources that are
being mined by the unscrupulous. Right in our own back yard, the largest food
and beverage company in the world is mining water, and seeking to expand their
extraction operations in Fryeburg, Maine. Local elected officials have failed –
and failed mightily - to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Nestlé’s lack of ethics became national news in the 1970’s when we learned that they were aggressively marketing baby formula to third world mothers. They handed out literature, had women dressed as nurses to discuss the benefits of formula, gave out baby bottles, and free samples. After the mother’s own milk dried up, they were forced to purchase formula, and often had nothing but contaminated water to mix it with. Many diluted the formula to stretch it out, because they were so poor. They weren’t told that diluting the formula, especially with contaminated water, could lead to malnutrition and the death of their infants.
The ensuing scandal and Nestle boycott brought about the creation of the International Code of Marketing Breast Milk Substitutes in 1981. The code states that baby food companies may not promote their products in hospitals or shops. They may not give free samples to mothers or give gifts to health workers or mothers. They may not give misleading information, and must explain the cost of using the formula.
Nestle is still under scrutiny. The boycott was called off for a few years, but it is back in place, because, naturally, they’ve found ways around the code. The opportunity to make money from some of the poorest people on the planet was too alluring. Nestle exploits, creates misfortune, and then profits from that misfortune.
In Michigan, where Flint residents were poisoned by their tap water, Nestle is working to increase the pumping of spring water in Osceola Township. They pay nothing for the water they pump there. Nothing. In Fryeburg they pay next to nothing, and that isn’t enough. They always want more. Nestle always finds unscrupulous elected officials to help sell their town down the river – a river they’ll suck dry, just as they sucked the original Poland Spring dry.
Nestlé’s lack of ethics became national news in the 1970’s when we learned that they were aggressively marketing baby formula to third world mothers. They handed out literature, had women dressed as nurses to discuss the benefits of formula, gave out baby bottles, and free samples. After the mother’s own milk dried up, they were forced to purchase formula, and often had nothing but contaminated water to mix it with. Many diluted the formula to stretch it out, because they were so poor. They weren’t told that diluting the formula, especially with contaminated water, could lead to malnutrition and the death of their infants.
The ensuing scandal and Nestle boycott brought about the creation of the International Code of Marketing Breast Milk Substitutes in 1981. The code states that baby food companies may not promote their products in hospitals or shops. They may not give free samples to mothers or give gifts to health workers or mothers. They may not give misleading information, and must explain the cost of using the formula.
Nestle is still under scrutiny. The boycott was called off for a few years, but it is back in place, because, naturally, they’ve found ways around the code. The opportunity to make money from some of the poorest people on the planet was too alluring. Nestle exploits, creates misfortune, and then profits from that misfortune.
In Michigan, where Flint residents were poisoned by their tap water, Nestle is working to increase the pumping of spring water in Osceola Township. They pay nothing for the water they pump there. Nothing. In Fryeburg they pay next to nothing, and that isn’t enough. They always want more. Nestle always finds unscrupulous elected officials to help sell their town down the river – a river they’ll suck dry, just as they sucked the original Poland Spring dry.
Dear Fryeburg: there’s always
a quid pro, as Fightin’ Bob LaFollette found when he investigated Albert Fall.
Find it. And oust those who would sell your town.
