The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1881-04-15
A GREAT MONOPOLY.
The Standard Oil Company, and How
1t Came to BE.

Very few of the forty millions of people in
the United States who burn, kerosene know
that its production, manufacture and export,
its price at home and abroad, and abroad,
have been controlled for years by single
corporation Standard Oil Company.
This company began partnership, in the
early part of the civil war, between Samuel
Andrews and John Rockefeller, in Cleveland.
Rockefeller had been a book-keeper in some
interior town in Ohio, ,and had afterwad made
q few thousand dollars by keeping flour
store in Cleveland, Andrews had been
day laborer in refineres, and so poor that his
wife took in sewing. He found way of re-
fining by which more kerosene could be got
of barrel of petroleum than by any other
method, and set up for himself ten-barrel
still in Cleveland, by which he cleared $500
in six months. Andrews still and Rockfel-
ler's savings have grown into the Standard
Oil Company. 1t has capital, nominally
s., SOC, 900, but really much more, on which
it divides among its stockholders every year
millions of dollars of profits. 1t has refiner-
les at Cleveland, 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 busines. 1t has
bought land at indianapolis on which to
erect the largest barrel factory in the coun-
| try. 1t has drawn its check for LOCO 200 to
suppress rival. 1t buys 10000 to 10000
barrels of crude oil day, at price fixed by
itself, and makes special contracts with the
railroads for the transportation Of 13,OOO,OOO
to H. 900 900 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, an
other that of some country Of Europe, an
other that of the United States. In New
York you cannot buy oil for East Indian ex-
port from the house that has been given the
European trade; reciprocally, the East India
house is not allowed to sell for export to
| Europe. The Standard produces only the
5Oth or Goth of our petroleum, but dictates
the prices of all. and re6nes 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 lit
tie competition survives. Such is the indif
ference of the Standard to railroad charges
that the price is made the same for points a
far apart as Terre Haute, Chicago, or in any
other city in New. England, Western or South
ern States, dealing N kerosene, whose prices
are not fixed for him by the Standard. Ii
all cases these prices are graded so that amer
chant in one city cannot export to another
Chicago, Cincinnati or Cleveland is not al
lowed to supply the tributary towns. Tha
is done by the Standard itself, which runs OF
in its own tank cars to all the principal point
of distribution. This corporation has driver
into bankruptcy, or out of business, or int
union with itself, all the petroleum refner
les in the country, except five in New York
, and few of little consequence in western
= Pennsylvania. Nobody knows how man
: millions Rockefeller is worth. Current gos
: sip among his business acquaintance at Cleve
/ land put his income, last year, at figure sec
, ond only, if second at all, to that of Wander
' bit. His partner, Samuel Andrews, tn
, poor English day laborer, retired years az
= with millions. Just who the Standard o
= Company are, exactly what their relations
. the railroads, nobody knows except in par
Their officers refused to testify before ii
e Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the la
r New York railroad investigating committe
and committee of Congress. The Ne
q York committee found there was nothing
q be learned from them, and was compelled
n confess its inability to ascertain as much
it desired to know "of this mysterious orga
ization, whose business and transactions q
of such a character that its members decllr
giving history or description, least The
testimony be used to convict them Of son
., crime"