The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-01-28

the United States who burn kero-
sene know that its production, man
ufacture and export, its price at
home and abroad, have been con-
trolled for years by single corpo-
ration-the Standard Oil Company.
This company began in a partner
ship in the early years OF the civil
war. between Samuel Andrews and
John Rockefeller in Cleveland.
Rockefeller had been a book keep
err in some interior town in Ohio,
and had afterwards made a few
thousand dollars by keeping -four
store in Cleveland. Andrews had
been a day laborer in refineries, and
SO poor that his wife took in sew.
ing. He found way of refining
by which more kerosene could be
got out of a 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 RockefelIer's savings have
grown into the Standard Oil Com
pany. 1t has a capital, nominally
So, zoo, 900, but really much more,
on which it divides among its stock
holders every year millions of dol
lars of profits. 1t has refneries at
Cleveland, Baltimore and New
York. It's own acid works, glue
factories, hardware stores and bar
rel sAops supply it with all the &C
cessories it needs in its business. 1t
has bought land in Indianapolis on
which to erect the largest barrel
factory in the country. 1t has
drawn its check for 100000 to
suppress rival. 1t buys 10000 to
40, 900 barrels of crude oil day, at
a price fixed by itself, and makes
special contracts with the railroads
for the transportation of 10000
to 100000 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; reciprecally, the
East Indian house is not allowed to
sell for export to Europe. The
Standard produces only one ,fiftieth
or sixtieth 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
a little competition survives Such
is the indifference of the Standard
Oil Company to railroad charges
that the price is made 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 a merchant in
one city can not export to another.
Chicago, Cincinnati or Cleveland is
not allowed to supply the tributary
towns. That is done by the Stan
dard itself, which runs oil in its own
tank cars to all the principal points
of distribution. This corporation
has driven into bankruptcy, or out
of business, or into union with itself,
ali the petroleum refneries of the
country except five in New York
and few of little consequence in
Western Pennsylvania. Nobody
knows how many millions Rookie
Teller is worth. Current gossip
among his business acquaintance in
Cleveland puts his income last year
at figure second only. if second at
all, to that of Vanderbilt. His part
ner, Samuel Andrews, the poor
English day laborer, retired years
ago with millions. Just who the
Standard Oil Company are, exactly
what their capital is, and what are
their relations to the railroads, no.
body knows except in part Their
officers refused to testify before the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
the late New York Railroad Inves-
tigating Committee, and a commit
tee of Congress. The New York
committee found there was nothing
to be learned from them, and was
compelled to confess its inability to
ascertain as much as it desired to
know "ot this mysterious organiza-
ton, whose business and transac-
tons are of such character that its
members declined giving history
or description, lest their testimony
be used to convict them of crime"
To-day, in every part of the
United States, people who burn
kerosene are paying the Standard
Oil Company tax on every gallon
amounting to several times its orig
inal cost to that concern. The
average price of crude oil at the
wells or at Cleveland, as the rail-
roads carry the crude free to the
Standards refneries, was in De-
cember last about three cents gal
lon. The price of refined ct Cleve-
and was seventeen cents a gal
lon. Oil that the Standard sell
in New York at profit, at Io5
cents gallon, they charge Ioi