Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-21
Monday Morning, Feb. e1, 1881.
GREAT MONOPOLY.

l
 No more important, timely or interesting
 article appears in the magazines this month
 than H. D. Lloyd's contribution to the
 Ahaaatic, entitled ''The Story of Great Mon opoly." The great monopoly whose history,
 so far as it is known, is given by MT. Lloyd
 is the Standard Oil Company. This com pany began in partnership in the early years of the civil war between Samuel An drews and John Rockefeller in Cleveland.
 It has now capital, nominally $3, 800, 900, | but really much more, on which it divides l among it's stockholders every year millions of dollars of profits. It has refineries at Cleve-
 land, Baltimore and New York. Its own acid works, glue factories, hardware stores and
 barrel shops supply it with all the accessories | it needs in its business. It has bought land
 at Indianapolis on which to erect the largest barrel factory in the country. It has drawn it's check for $1, ,00O, 900 to suppress rival.
 day, at price fixed by itself, and makes
 special contracts with the railroads for the
 transportation of 13, 100000 to If, ,OOO, 900
 barrels of oil year. The four quarters of
 the globe are partitioned among the members
 of the Standard combinations. One has the
 control of the China trade another that of
 some country of Europe; another that of the United States. In New York, you can-
 not buy oil for East Indian export from the
 house that has been given the European
 trade; reciprocally, the East Indian house is
 not allowed to sell for export to Europe. The
 Standard produces only one fiftieth or six
 tieth of our petroleum, but dictates the price
 of all. and refines nine -tenths. Circulars are
 issued at intervals by which the price of
 oil is fixed for all the cities of the country, except New York, where little competition survives. Such is the indiffer- ence of the Standard Oil Company to the same for points so far apart as Terre Haute, Chicago and Keokuk. There is not to-day a merchant in Chicago, or in any other city in the New England, Western or Southern States, dealing in kerosene, whose prices are not fixed for him by the Standard. In all cases these prices are graded so that mer- chant in one city cannot export to another Chicago, Cincinnati, or Cleveland is not al- lowed to supply the tributary towns. That is done by the Standard itself, which runs oil in it's own tank cars to all the principal points of distribution. This corporation has l driven into bankruptcy, or out of business, or into union with itself, all the petroleum | reineries of the country except five in New York, and 8 few of little consequence in l Western Pennsylvania.
 Over and above the cost of production and | all legitimate profits the Standard Oil Com l pany taxes the pub lie from eight to fourteen | cents per gallon; but to avoid all possibility | of exaggeration MT. Lloyd puts this tithe down to five cents per gallon, and estimates that the company thus levies upon the whole country an annual tax of $11, ,0OO, ,OOO, besides the millions which it compels the railroads to | pay it in the form of rebates. And when the | people threaten it's power through the courts or law-making bodies it bribes judges and | Legislatures. Luccessful and honored business men perjure themselves to protect its secrets from exposure. Governors of States stand between it and its enemies. It robs the peo- pie, sneers at their complaints, and defes them. The secret of its power is it's control over the trunk railroad lines, which are in with it to plunder the public by killing competition. The roads make rates it it's favor and then pay it great sums re- bates, so that it is able to sell oil at less than the cost of production as often as it has a rival well-owner or refiner to contend with.
 The facts and figures which MT. Lloyd pre- sents are of startling significance and will add force to the public indignation which has lately been kindled against monopoly in all it's forms. They make those who read them feel, with MT. Lloyd, that ''The time has come to face the fact that the forces of capi- tai and industry have outgrown the forces of our Government. The corporations and the trades-union have forgotten that they are the creatures of the State. Our strong men are engaged in headlong fight for fortune, power, precedence, success. Americans as they are they ride over the people like Juggernauts to gain their ends The moralists have preached to them since the world began, and have failed. The common people-the voters must take them in hand The Nation is the engine of the people. They must used it for their individual life as they used it in 1861 for their political life. The States have failed. The United States must succeed, or the people will perish"