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Article Title: Petroleum, Politics, and Prices: Omaha‟s Gas War of 1924
Full Citation: L Robert Puschendorf, “Petroleum, Politics, and Prices: Omaha‟s Gas War of 1924,” Nebraska
History 87 (2006): 54-81
URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH2006GasWar.pdf
Date: 7/24/2012
Article Summary: Outrage at high gas prices isn‟t new—in 1924 the governor threatened to open state stations, the
attorney general took fifteen oil companies to court, and a gas war was good news to Omaha drivers.
Cataloging Information:
Names: H M Michel, W H McMaster, Charles W Bryan, Ora S Spillman, John H Hopkins, Charles Sutherland,
James C Dahlman, B S Elrod, E E Howell, G A Steele, J F Ligget, T J McGuire, William G Hastings, A H
Richardson, John P Breen
Nebraska Place Names: Omaha
Keywords: gas war, Standard Oil Company (Nebraska), Standard Oil Company (Indiana), National Petroleum
Marketers‟ Association, Nebraska Independent Oil Men‟s Association, Omaha Muny, Petroleum Club, 1905
Junkin Anti-Trust law, 15-Cent League, “Square Six,” Consumers Gasoline Company (“Mystery Station”),
National Petroleum News, Anderson-Johnson Oil Corporation, Nicholas Oil Corporation, Sinclair Refining
Company
Photographs / Images: H M Michel‟s Service Oil Company, Eighteenth & Izard, one of several cut-rate stations
that took up the fight in Omaha‟s 1924 gas war; 1929 Standard Oil of Nebraska road map; Nebraska Governor
Charles W Bryan, 1923; “quarter” token issued by the Standard Oil Company of Nebraska; Omaha‟s Muny station,
Sixteenth & Izard streets, 1924; municipal gas station opened by Omaha Fire Commissioner John H Hopkins in
February 1924; “Dealers Say Sale of Muny „Gas‟ Illegal” (inset Omaha Bee article, February 19, 1924); Omaha
municipal station; Nebraska Attorney General Ora S Spillman; Omaha dentist Dr Felix J Despecher, founder of the
15-Cent League; first independent cut-rate station to challenge the Muny, opened by B S Elrod and E E Howell
next door to the city‟s operation; H M Michel‟s cut-rate station; Consumers‟ Gasoline Company, named the
“Mystery Station” by the press, the fifth cut-rate station to open (inset Omaha World-Herald photo, June 8, 1924);
U S Oil Works station; the “Price War District” (inset Omaha World-Herald map, June 8, 1924); Governor
Charles Bryan paying for gas at a cut-rate station in the state Public Works Department, Lincoln; “It‟s Your Fight
Now,” a sign enlisting public support for J F Ligget‟s station at Sixteenth & Charles streets (inset Omaha WorldHerald photo, June 22, 1924); pledge and windshield sticker of the 15-Cent League; Omaha municipal station; H
M Michel‟s second cut-rate Omaha station
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