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

cheaper than gas, or the student
because it is better, each pays the
Standard THIS tax of eight and three
fourth cents q gallon. A family
that uses gallon of kerosene day
paws a yearly tribute to the Stan
dard of $32, the income from $500
in the four per cents. In Pennsyi-
vania the tax levied by the stan
dard above all expenses and legitl-
mate profits is calculated by an ex-
pert at fourteen cents a gallon.
This makes yearly tax on the light
in most general use in that State OF
So, $4,000. The whole country
consumed last year, at a low esti-
mate. 100000 gallons of kero-
sene. Putting the Standard tax, to
avoid all possibility of exaggeration,
down to five cents a gallon, we
have levy on the whole country of
$1,000, 900, besides the millions
taken from the railroads in rebates.
These, according to the sworn evil
dence of the officers of the railroads,
and the known figures of ship
ments, amounted in 1878 to $4,000
$40, and in the period between Dc
tober II, 1877, and March 81, 1879,
to $Io,IsI,2I9. These figures make
reasonable the current estimate that
the Standard pays dividends of 81
ooo. 900 a month. 1t can do this,
and have millions left to pay the
suits of refineries it has leased and
keeps idle, its backsheesh to rail
road men, the brides it has to give
judges, State legislatures, and State
inspectors and its salaries of hun
dreds of men whom it has turned
out of the business and who are
acting as its paid agents. To day
the only visible hope of cheap light
for the people of this country is the
discovery, announced by the AT
lantic cable on January 18th, that
in the Hanover petroleum district
in Germany basin has been found
which is thought by experts to be
beyond doubt, as large and rich as
the one in Pennsylvania. In Eu
rope such alliance between the rail.
roads and the refiners as created the
| Standard monopoly are impossible
German oil wells, German refneries
| and the Canadian canals may yet
give the people of the interior o.
| this continent what the American
| Standard and theAmerican railroad.
have denied them-cheap light.
1t is the railroads that have bred
the millionaires who are now buy
ing newspapers, and getting up
corners in wheat, corn, and cotton
and are making railroad consolida
tons that stretch across the cont
nent. BY the same tactics that the
railroads have used to build up the
Standard, they can give to other
combinations of capitalists the con-
troll of the wheat, lumber, cotton
or any other product of the United
States. Give the power to raise
and change the freight rate at will
these specializing directors can con
troll the prices the West shall ge
for its grain and cattle, and those
the East shall pay for its bread and
meat. The New York Chamber
of Commerce, on February 5, 1880
unanimously adopted a report
signed by Chas. S. Smith, Jackson
S. Schultz, Benjamin B. Sherman
Francis B. Thurber, Benjamin 6
Arnold, Jacob Wendell, and Chas
G. Dodge-in which these signiii-
cant words occur: ''What has hap
pened in the case of the Standard
Oil Company may happen in other
lines of business. With the favor
of the managers of the trunk lines,
what is to prevent commerce in the
rest of the great staples from being
monpolized in a similar manner;
Already it is taking this course.
One or two firms in Baltimore, New
York, Philadelphia, and Boston.
with their branch houses in the
West, are, by the favor of the rail
roads, fast monopolizing the export
trade in wheat, corn, cattle, and
provisions, driving their competi
tors to the wall with absolute GER
thinty, breaking down and crush
ing out the energy and enterprise
of the many for the benefit of the
favored few"