Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-16

FRIDAY EVENING. SEPT. 10. 1881.
The Claim Against the Standard.

In may last, before the DemOcraLlc
administration of the auditor generals
Office ceased, the tax account against the
Standard oil company, for taxes due on
its capital stock and dividends for the
preceding nine years, was settled at the
figure of $3,l45, ,56l.64. This amount
was estimated by the Office, in default of
any report from the company, which
had been called upon to furnish the data
upon which to settle the account of the
state against it. The Standard company
sought to have the action of Auditor
General Schell, or his chief clerk, Mr..
Kerr, who did the work, revised by the
present Republican administration of
the Office. 1t has now taken an appeal
to the Dauphin county court, although
at lirst it was supposed that it intended
only to defeat the collection of the
claim by having no property in the state
to be levied upon. That may lie its
effort when driven into the last ditch,
but it gains time 10y continuing the
struggle in the courts and it may be, too,
that it feels that it will have a more
favorable judge in SimOnton, who sue
ceeds PiersOn and under whom the case
will he tried. Perhaps we are not just
to Mr.. SimOntOn i'm this suggestion, but
we remember that lie was the associate
of Olmsted, the present attorney of the
Standard corporation, in that operation
by which they secured q fee of nineteen
thousand dollars from the state in the
matter of the tax collected from the
Union Transportation company through
methods which certainly were not up to
the very highest standard of professional
conduct.
BY their counsel Olmsted, the Stand
ard company file some twenty-four rea-
sons why they should not be required to
pay this tax. They declare in the first
place that they did not neglect or refuse
to furnish any information they could
be lawfully called upon for, and follow
this up by saying in a number of differ
ent forms, that they do not owe the state
of Pennsylvania any tax. If they don't
owe anything, they were right enough
not to account to the state, and they
need not apologize for not making the
statement they say they did not refuse
to make. Their declaration is that they
are incorporated in Ohio and do bust
ness in that state that they exercise no
corporate privileges i'm Pennsylvania nor
do they use their capital there, or have an
Office or agent in the state. AS neither
the corporation, nor its property, nor its
business, is within the jurisdiction or
protection of said state" the company
thinks it is not subject to taxation under
its laws. And it would indeed, by that
statement, seem to he 4 much abused
corporation. But inasmuch as it
is about the livelicst corporation
the state has known and has been
dancing over it for number of years
in a way to greatly excite its people, we
are abound to conclude that if the STAN
dard people tell the truth about its ex-
ceedingly unsubstantial character in
Pennsylvania, the citizens of the state
generally have been suffering 4 night
mare and dreaming dreams. But the
results of this corporation S activity have
been too material to permit lis to doubt
that they have been among us in body
as we'll rs in spirit and no one can
readily he persuaded that company
which has troubled Pennsylvania so
much, and Ohio seemingly not at all, is
one that Pennsylvania cannot get q grip
upon to make it pay just tribute for
the wealth that it has gathered alone
within her borders.
The refining of oil, which is the oSttn-
sible business of the Standard company,
and which it carries on largely in Ohio,
furnishes i'm fact but 4 small part of its
revenues, which are derived from the
control of the oil supply of Pennsylva-
MIA. Notwithstanding the apparent
declaration in the complaint that the
company has no property in this state,
the admission is subsequently made that
it "has made purchases of crude petro-
leum for shipment out of the state. "
But il claims that this buying and SELL
ing of oil cannot be taxed by the state
because it is forbidden by the constitu-
tion of the United States, which reserves
to Congress the right to lay imposts on
exports and imports.
That strikes us us exceedingly silly.
It would be remarkable, indeed, if tax
laid by Pennsylvania upon dealers in a
product of its soil could be construed
into an impost on an export. The same
argument would tie the hands of the
state in raising revenue from any of its
products and manufactures; and this
company which has made millions 10y its
manipulation within the state of one of
its chief resources would escape the pay
ment of anything for the privilege for
if Pennsylvania cannot tax the Standard
for it's transactions i'm the state no
other state can, and no other essays to
do so. 1t is notable that this company
does not allege that it has paid any tax
anywhere on its dealings in oil in Penn.
sylvania. And yet these are the profits
it confesses to: In 1878, with a capital
of two and a-half million of dollars, it
divided $347,61O. In 1874, $685.
In 1875, the capital being raised
to three and a-half millions, the
dividends were $5l4,23O. In 1876,
$50l ,2s5. In 1877, $S,24s,65o, nearly
the amou unit of the capital. In 1873,