The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-03-19
SELECT LITERATURE.
STORY OF A GREAT MONOPOLY.
CONTINUED.

out forms of law fought with every
weapon they could command. The
struggle has been going on continuously
for nine years. All that men could do
who were fighting for seli-preservatin
was done. They caused to be introduced
into Congress the first original bill to
regulate railroads in interstate commerce.
The outrages done by the roads and the
Standard were proved before an invest
eating committee of Congress. but Con-
gress did nothing. The legislature If
PENNSYLVANIA was beSou"ht to pass laws
to enforce the constitutional provision
for equal rights on the railroads of the
State, but the money of the STANDARD
was more powerful than the petition of
business men who asked orly FOR fair
chance. Numbers of suits were brought
by individuals and nomnally by the
State, but by the harmonious efforts of
the governor. the attorney-general. the
courts. and the defendants they were
prevented from coming to any conclusion.
Indictments for criminal conspiracy were
found by a grand jury, but when Gov
ernor IIoyt, of Pennsylvania, i'll due
acquisitions for the extradition of the
two RockefellerS and their accompliceS.
he refused to do so. Worst failure of all,
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
stayed the trial of the most important OF
the eases in progress in a lower court.
and So brought the legal proceedings
an end. in striking agre, mcnt with the
prediction of one of the defendants that
1.-The case would never be tried. In
short. the plundered found that the
courts. the governor. and the Legislature
of their State, and the Congress Of the
United States We're the tools of the plum
derers, and were forced to compromise.
This compromise. signed February 9TH,
1880, was Il victory i'll forcing pledge
from the Standard and the railroads of
the abandonment Of the worst of their
practices. but there lies in it. as in most
compromises. n germ of disaster. 1t
permits the Standard to receive any re-
and allows the railroad to give rebates IT,
large shippers, of whom there is but one
the Standard This is the relative
position of the parties to-day. The
Standard holds its vantage ground. and
America has the proud satisfaction OF
having furnished the world with the
greatest. wisest and meanest monopoly
known to history.
To-day. in every part OF the United
States. people who burn kerosene are
paving the Standard Oil Company 4 tax
on every gallon amounting 20 several
times its original cost to that concern.
The average price of crude oil At the
wells or at Cleveland, rs the railroads
carry the crude free to the Standards
refincries, was in December last about
three cents \ gallon. The price Of re-
fined at Cleveland was seventeen cents
n gallon. Oil that the Standard sells in
New York at profit. at ten and oEe-half
cents Il gallon, they charge nineteen and
three fourths cents for in Chicago. The
average cost, last December, OF the one
and a third barrels of petroleum needed
to make barrel of kerosene was S2o5
at Cleveland The cost of refining bar
relin.. and all expenses. including re-
tncr's profit of half 4 dollar Il barrel, is.
according to the testimony of experts,
s275 Il barrel. To bring it by rail to
Chicago costs seventy cents, making the
total cost $3.50 for a barrel of fifty gal
Ions. The price the Standard charges in
Chicago is nineteen and .three-fourths
| cents a gallon, in which. as the differ
cnce between eleven and nineteen and
| three-(uurths cents, there is 4 tax on the
public of eight and three-fourths cents.
| This tax is transmitted by the middle
men, iobbers. and retailers to the con-
sumner. When at twenty-five cents 4 gal
! Ion the workinGman buys Kerosene be-
clusc it is cheaper than gas, or the stu
! dent because ii is better. each pays the
| Standard this tax of eight and three
| fourths cents Il gallon. family that
uses a gallon of kerosene a day pays a
yearly tribute to the Standard of $50,
! the income from $500 in the four pei
cents. In Pennsylvania, the tax levied
| by the Standard above all expenses and
| legitimate profits is calculated by an rN-
| pert at fourteen cents a gallon. This
! makes yearly tax on The light in most
| general use in that State of - J53. 900
| The whole country consumed last year.
at i low estimate. SEQ coo, 600 gallons OF
kerosene. Putting the Standard tax, to
avoid all possibility of exagseration, down
to five cents a gallon. we have 4 levy or
the whole country Of 81 900, 600, besides
the millions taken from the railroads il
rebates. These. according to the sworr
evidence of the officers of the railroads
and the known figures OF shipments
amounted in 1873 to Sc, 900 $40. and il
the period between October Il. 1877. ant
March 81. 1879. to 80. 1jl.21S. These
figures make reasonable the current est
mate that the Standard pays dividends
of 81 900. 600 Il month. 1t can do this
and have millions left to pay the suits o
refneries it has leased and keeps idle, it;
| backsheesh to railroad men. the bride:
it has had to give judges, State legisla
lures, and State inspectors. and its sala
ries of hundreds of thousands Of dollars
a month to men whom it has turned ou
of the business. and who are acting a
its paid agents To-day the only visible
hope of cheap light for the people of thi:
country is the discovery, announced by
the Atlantic cable on January 2Sth. tina
in the Hanover petroleum Il strict in Ger
many a basin has been found, which il
thought by experts to be, beyond doubt
as large and rich as the one in Pennsyl
vania. In Europe, such alliances be
tween the railroads and the retncrs a
created the Standard monopoly are i'm
possible German oil wells. German re
fineries, and the Canadian canals may We
give the people of the interior Of thu
continent what the American STANDARD
and the American railroads have deniet
them--cheap light.
1t is the railroads that have bred TIL
millionaires who are now buying news
papers, and getting mp corners in wheat