Official report to the House of Representatives of the 58th Legislature of Texas Page: 71 of 94
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He pointed out that they had sought advice of the Texas Research League to study
the entire RRC and its functions* and to obtain recommendations from them.
The final witness was W. J Murray, Jr,, chairman of the Railroad Commission.
He testified:
The Committee, I think, will recall that I was concerned at the
clos(; of the Dallas hearing that inaccurate statements had been
entered into the record. The Committee very graciously gave
me an opportunity, even in spite of the late hour, to clear up and
in part, correct some of these inaccurate statements. I think
the record today has been very carefully developed, and does
correctly present the truth regarding the inaccurate statements
that had previously been made. You have read into the record
certain statements that were made from the transcript previously,
and these have been refuted, The true facts have now been placed
in the record,
. . an allegation has been made that it was common knowledge
that deviated drilled was taking place. . Now the only testimony
before this Committee that I have heard was made by an operator
(Harrington) that had been found to have five--seven, I believe,
illegally slanted wells on his leases, and he is the person that
was most critical of the commission for not knowing the slanted
drilling was going on, and yet he swore to this Committee that
he didn't know his own wells were deviated. . We cannot refute
the accusation that we ought to have heard about slant drilling.
We acknowledge that we have long been concerned that deviated
drilling might take place and this concern is evidenced by the
number of orders which we issued to prevent deviated drilling,
but we do state under oath that we did not have knowledge that
deviated drilling was occurring and that the only specific cases
of alleged deviated drilling ever brought to the commission were
those instances which we have previously described to this
Committee.
Mr. Wilson: Do you have any knowledge as to whether or not his efforts
to look this matter over had anything to do with his sudden
demise as chairman of the Tender Board?
A. I have no knowledge. In fact, I didn't know he was gone
until I found that his successor and predecessor was back
in office. Unfortunately, I am a strange Texan that doesn't
drink coffee, and so I miss out on a lot of the gossip and
get it late.
Q. He didn't raise the question at that time about the conduct
of the district office at Kilgore?-70
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Texas Legislature. House of Representatives. General Investigating Committee. Official report to the House of Representatives of the 58th Legislature of Texas, book, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5869/m1/71/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .