The Hawaiian gazette., 1888-04-10

would be in danger. Since then he
has been content to transact his busi-
ness through agents.
THE PEOPLE PAY.
In the great fight which followed
to get control of refneries Pittsburg
held out the best, because it had the
Allegheny river for highway, and
several big refneries STAYED off the
inevitable for a long time. Immense
RATS were built up the river, loaded
with barrels of crude petroleum, and
"snubbed" down to the refneries at
nominal cost, the value of the RATS as
lumber more than making good the
expense. The Standard worked until
it got rebates to the seaboard, and
then the Pittsburg opposition began
to suffer. Sell out or burst!" was
the cry of the Standards agents, and
one by one the independent refine
ries sold out to the Standard. If the
men who owned them were worth
having they were engaged at large
salaries by the Standard, and thus
their fealty was assured. At last
only two were left in the field, Hold
ship & Irwin's and D. P. Richards.
The latter refused $250,000 for his
refinery and, though he was finally
forced to give it up, he has always re-
fused to accept favors from the hated
monopoly, and is to-day powerful
enemy.
The public have reason to be in
terested in these cruel tactics, for in
the end they have to pay the freight.
1t is not generally known that the
Standard Trust has pickets posted in
every considerable city in the land.
If any alien brand of oil appears on
the market it is their duty to investi
gate and report. Then the battle be-
gins. The manufacturers are threat
ened ard the retailers intimidated
and customers cajoled. Oil is sold
for Is, 10, if necessary, 5 cents per
gallon. In many instances retailers
are offered free oil for awhile if they
will only give up selling the outsiders
oil. When these tactics fail there are
likely to be mysterious explosions and
fires in oil tanks and refneries, like
those testified to in the recent Buffalo
conspiracy case. 1t is savage warfare
this-as cowardly as that which
shoots women and children.
The secret agents of the Standard
Oil Trust are everywhere. Nobody
ever existed that understood the art
of corrupting and buying men so
we'll as this one. No man in the oil
business is safe. His dearest friend,
his trusted partner may be secretly
salaried tool of this great enemy.
Here is an lnstance-ene of hundreds
which has never appeared in print.
A large producer in the Bradford
region founded partnership with
man whom he supposed to be per
fectly honest, but who was secret
emissary of the Standard. He now
thinks the latter furnished the money
for the partners interest, and had the
partnership formed in order to get
the whip hand of the producer. After
awhile large losses occurred to the
firm because the pipe would not
draw off the oil as fast as the wells
produced it. The Standard end made
a great to do about it, and yet some
how his anguish did not appear to
go very deep. At length, in an I'M
guarded moment, he let slip to an
acquaintance the fact that he was not
really suffering very much financially,
as his losses were made good to him
on the strict q. t."
THE TRUST HIRES TALENT.
One of the most scandalous trans
actions of the pipe line of the big
conspiracy is known in the Bradford
region as the immediate shipment
racket. 1t was played shortly after
the field was opened in 1870. When
wells were spouting oil and overrun-
ming the tanks of the producers, the
pipe line company ran terribly short
of facilities-that is to say, they pre-
tended they did-and whenever they
found producer who was not one of
their favorites getting stuck they
would refuse to take away his oil,
claiming that their own tanks were
all full. They would, however, grant
him an immediate shipment certificate
if he would let the oil go cheap
enough. When oil stood at 80 they
bought it for immediate, shipment at
60, and, strange to say, they were
never so full but that they could run
immediate shipment oil at once. A
queer proceeding, you say, for CEN
mon carrier? Yes, it was, but queer
common carrier the United Pipe
Lines have always been. But the
producers had to grin and bear it, or
let their oil go to waste. Some of
them took the latter alternative.
Rather than pay tribute to such a
robbery, they opened the pipes and
let the oil run into the woods.
1t is not difficult matter to point
out the relationship of the Standard
Oil Trust to the consumer. The lat
ter is wholly at its mercy. It ap-