Background
Amos Leonidas Beaty was born on September 1, 1870, in Red River County, Texas, the eldest of seven children (three sons and four daughters) of William Alexander Beaty, a farmer of moderate means, and Annie Eleanor (Rogers) Beaty.
Amos Leonidas Beaty was born on September 1, 1870, in Red River County, Texas, the eldest of seven children (three sons and four daughters) of William Alexander Beaty, a farmer of moderate means, and Annie Eleanor (Rogers) Beaty.
Educated at a rural school in Coleman Springs, Texas, and at Honey Grove Academy, Fannin County, Amos Beaty then read law in the office of Chambers & Doak in Clarksville.
At twenty-one Amos Beaty was admitted to the Texas bar and a year later became the junior member of Wilkins & Beaty in Sherman. The important "Snow Case, " involving life tenancy in mineral rights and growing out of the discovery of oil in the Spindletop field (1901), marked his rise. By 1906 he had become president of the Texas Bar Association. The next year found him as an attorney for the Texas Company (Texaco), a vigorous young oil concern headed by Joseph S. Cullinan. A large and impressive figure, with a keen mind and outstanding personality, Beaty soon became associate general attorney, and in 1913 he moved with the company's executive headquarters to New York. On November 25 of that year he was elected general counsel, a director, and member of the executive committee. His legal ability greatly helped the growing company in adjusting to its rather restrictive charter. Under his leadership new laws were secured, in 1915 and 1917, broadening the company's scope of operations. He also smoothed the way for its entry into the Oklahoma oil fields.
Beaty likewise served as general counsel for the Producers Oil Company and president of the Texas Petroleum Company, two Texaco subsidiaries. On March 23, 1920, he was elected president of the parent company, a position he held for six years. An able administrator, Beaty concentrated on expansion of gasoline production and marketing outlets. He successfully defended his organization in a federal suit for unlawful combination growing out of the pooling of "oil cracking" patents. As president, Beaty took the position that the growing menace of overproduction could be solved by the industry in a "sportsmanlike manner. " He became chairman of the board of the Texas Company on March 16, 1926, and it became his responsibility to guide, explain, and justify the company's reorganization under a new Delaware charter. A disagreement over company policy led to his sudden resignation on December 21, 1927.
Beaty returned to the practice of law but maintained his industrial connections. He resumed active participation in 1929 as chairman of the board of Transcontinental Oil Company and as a director of the Freeport Texas Company. In 1931 he became a member of the executive committee and a director of Phillips Petroleum Company. Almost from its origin, he was active in the American Petroleum Institute. A director in 1924, Beaty in the following year headed a committee to cooperate with the Oil Conservation Board in eliminating waste. Here he propounded his belief that the only desirable legislation would be to regulate drilling and storage practices and permit agreements between operators to suspend competitive drilling for given periods. In 1926 Beaty headed the important committee on agreements, which favored producer compacts to curtail output, and became treasurer of the Institute. After five years as treasurer, he was honored by being chosen the first full-time, salaried president of the Institute, a step viewed by many as a move to make him unofficial czar of the industry.
Beaty's preeminent problem was massive overproduction, which he sought to solve by cutting output to fit demand. His experiences slowly led him to the conclusion that voluntary action was insufficient, and he took a stand for limited government control, a conviction he advocated fearlessly. This move, and the belief of some that he was overly pessimistic about the situation, probably was the reason he was not reelected, though he remained prominent in the organization.
Beaty played an active role in formulating the NRA code for the industry, and on August 30, 1933, he was appointed to the petroleum planning and coordination committee under this agency. He became vice-chairman and head of the important adjustment and interpretation subcommittee, which was the first court of appeal in field disputes growing out of the code. An advocate of federal control of production, he became chairman of the main committee in March 1934. Probably his most important contribution to the philosophy of control was his "Quotas in Commerce" theory, which held that the government should limit production by denying the admission of petroleum or its products, in excess of need, into the channels of interstate commerce.
On December 17, 1934, Beaty resigned to devote more time to personal interests and his position as counsel for Phillips Petroleum Company. He later organized the Amos L. Beaty Oil Company, serving as president until his death. Beaty was a Methodist and a Democrat and belonged to numerous social organizations. He died of a heart attack and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City.
Amos Beaty was a director and member of the executive committee of the Texas Company (Texaco); chairman of the board of Transcontinental Oil Company; a director of the Freeport Texas Company; a member of the executive committee and a director of Phillips Petroleum Company; president of the Amos L. Beaty Oil Company.
Amos Beaty was president of the Texas Bar Association.
On October 25, 1893, Amos Beaty married Swan Donoho, who died in an automobile accident in 1930. Mrs. Martha Wilhelmina MacNamara became his second wife on March 5, 1932. He had no children.
