Oilmen get caravan going for windfall-tax protest

More than 40 oilmen in flatbed trucks loaded with oil pumpers and a 96-foot derrick rumbled onto an Interstate highway Wednesday to begin a caravan to Washington to protest the proposed windfall-profits tax. The oilmen, some wearing cowboy hats and others in hard hats, climbed into seven rigs and about a dozen cars, lining up at the State Fairground in Oklahoma City. Their first stop was to be Little Rock, Ark.

State Rep. Charles Morgan, owner of Morgan Oilwell Service Inc., said that at least 40 more pieces of equipment from northern Oklahoma were expected to join the caravan along Interstate 40 before it was to arrive in Little Rock, where another 20 rigs have been lined up. A similar caravan was to leave Dallas Wednesday and join the Oklahoma group in Nashville Friday.