The Hawaiian gazette., 1888-04-10

all the pipe lines and monopolized
the oilcarrying traffic. 1t had bought
out weakhearted competitors in the
refining business and well nigh
crushed out the bold ones by the in
famous means which it did not
scruple to employ, and had fastened
its collar upon the unwilling necks
of the producers. It was master of
the situation and TRANQUILITY sitting
in the receipt of custom it was per
hitting the public to pay the piper,
for you may be sure that all the en-
ormous expenses of its warfare have
ultimately come from the pockets of
the latter.
John Rockefeller determined to
rear up another wall betwixt himself
and the judgment So he invented
the Standard Oil Trust. 1t is, first
and foremost, a sort of legal labyrinth,
in the mazes of which the Standard
Oil crew can dodge and hide from
legal process, civil and criminal. All
other purposes are subsidiary to this.
A SIMPLE PLAN.
The plan of organization was very
simple, although it has never before
been made public. An inventory was
made of the refining properties of
the Standard Oil Company all over
the country-in Hunters Point, New
Jersey, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland
and elsewhere-and total valuation
of S100,000,000 was put upon them.
The figures. of course, were arbitrary.
John D. had the say. Some proper
ties were figured close. Others, be-
longing to favorites, very literally.
The whole were organized into a
single unity, the whole stock listed at
eighty per cent, and the dear public
was invited to come in and share the
profits, and never say monopoly
again.
A stroke of genius Indeed it
was
There was not really any very great
amount of stock offered to the public,
nor did the latter call for much, for
it very soon transpired that the pre-
tense of taking the public into its
confidence was a hollow mockery.
You might buy trust stock and
you would know no more about
the trust than if you bought none.
How rLuch it took in, how much
it paid out, who were its officers,
when and where its meetings were
held, what action it took in any
subject, you would never know. If
you got dividends, all right; if you
got none there was nothing for you
to do but grin and bear it. The
secret trustees did what they pleased
in secret, and no man was the wiser.
So the stock long hung fire at so,
though it has since. for some mys-
FERROUS reason which no man seems
to understand, gone to $50.
Having perfected his masterpiece,
and having the United Pipe Lines all
in the vest pockets of his little coterie
those properties not being included
in the trust), Mr.. Rockefeller told his
long time subservient tools, the rail
roads, to go to the merry deuce.
They had won the trick for him, and
he had no further use for them.
Some little oil is still transported by
rail, but it is a mere flea bite As for
the Interstate commerce law, it is
now a protection to the concern which
grew rich violating the ethics of
transportation, because it prevents
possible competitors from securing
rebates and special rates.
JACK o'LANTERN TRICKS.
The Standard Oil Trust to-day
laughs at courts and judgments,
With all its huge size and wealth of
real tangible property, it is a will-'o
the wisp to him who seeks to collect
Judgment against it. If it wills to
pay, well and good. But if it wills
not to pay, unhappy the creditor who
seeks to place lien upon it. 1t is
like the magic man in the panto
mime. Now you see it, and now you
don't. Even though the creditor
knows the men who are back of it,
the Rockefellers, the church builder
Pratt, the Floridian developer Flag
Ter, and Archbold, and all the rest of
the gilded crew, he cannot prove his
knowledge. The tax collector is
equally at fault. State, nation,
county, town, get just what the
trust chooses to give them, and that
is all. A thing of night is the Stand
ard Trust, and all its deeds are dark
ness.
1t is scarcely necessary to rehearse
at any length the history of the
Standard Oil monopoly. As every
one knows, the oligarchy which con-
trolls it is composed of men who were
as poor as Jobs turkey a score of
years ago, and that every step of that
increase in wealth has been made at
the cost of honor and at the expense
of the public. At the end of the war
j. d. Rockefeller was getting SIS a
week as a clerk; Sam Andrews, his
early partner, was taking in $40 a
week as porter. They had done very
little until 100000 derived from q