Oldham's Obsessions

It is 1912, and the industrial scene in America is rapidly changing. Jim Oldham has successfully negotiated a deal to sell his boutique automobile manufacturing business to General Auto Corporation, for the princely sum of two million bucks. A hard worker all his life, what will he do now? Jim is in his sixties and could certainly retire in comfort. But no, he decides to run for congress and actually gets elected. So begins a second career for this man of humble beginnings and high principles, one who finds his values stretched and bent as he gets tangled in a web of political intrigue and begins cavorting with underworld figures who provide much-needed financial support. Before long, they have him locked in their sinister embrace, and extrication from the snare is far from easy.

A close friend of Congressman Oldham allows himself to be corrupted in the same way and on behalf of the causes of his buddy, and the two of them all too often find themselves doing bad things for good reasons. Do noble ends justify any means to achieving them? Is it justifiable to conspire with British political figures (Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty) to arrange the sinking of a great ocean liner (The Lusitania, 1915), with many innocent lives lost, so as to force the United States to join the Brits in their rapidly escalating war against the Germans? Is political campaign money dirty just because it comes from criminals? Are political alliances corrupt just because some of the people who support such alliances are themselves unsavory, or worse? These are the kinds of dilemma faced by Oldham as he as becomes powerful and entrenched. This man of high principles is soon corrupted by the system, led down a path of ever-increasing temptations, and his own behaviors ultimately turn him into a guilt-ridden basket case.

In a bitter and emotional ending, Jim Oldham's errors in judgment lead to the murder of his best friend at the hands of the criminals he thought were his allies. This and two severe heart attacks depress Jim deeply, and he confesses all his past indiscretions and failings to his loving but long-suffering wife, Penny. She had been sidelined for years as Jim obsessively pursued his own career objectives and ignored her interests. Now, however, just when she thinks her husband has had enough, and will give it all up, start anew as a private citizen without the stresses of public life, Oldham takes his own life.

In the closing scenes we learn of the hypocrisy of Congressman Oldham's colleagues and friends in Washington. They piously flock to his funeral and make insincere statements about him, many knowing he was guilty of exactly what they, themselves, were doing: choosing expediently and for personal gain rather than doing the right thing. Penny Oldham knows she has a few real friends, however, and she finds comfort in the genuineness of their embrace as she faces her future alone.

Oldham's Obsessions, is one of the series called American Tapestry, by Arch Barnes and Jack Marlando, that collectively illustrate America's social, economic and political progress from 1776 to the present day, through the adventures and misadventures of succeeding generations of one American Family.