The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-10-22

OF the Pennsylvania Company, alleg-
ing as the reason that no carrier
should likewise be a reiner. The
company refused, and the Standard
withdrew its freight and compelled
the other trunk lines t o begin a war
OF rates on the Pennsylvania Com
pany.
This lasted for several months and
until that company raised the white
flag. AT the demand of the Standard
it closed an option which it held on
the property o. the Empire Transpor-
tation Company, itself acquiring all
the cars, and the pipe lines and re-
fneries being conveyed to that n of
its own affiliated corporations which
the Standard selected.
Thus had the creature become the
master and shown itself greater than
the corporation whose favoritism
chiefly had built it up.
[ shall not pursue this subject, my
only object being to show, as already
stated, that the Standard Oil trust is
the creature of the railroad companies;
that it has been carried forward to
power and conquest upon their
shoulders and at the expense of their
stockholders.
WHAT WAS ITS STRANG INFLUENCE .?
[ come back now to the question.
How could a single shipper get such
determinations in its favor as to blot
out competitors?
The railroad managers reply that it
became necessary for them as Compel
ing carriers to concentrate the oil
traffic in n hand, in order to avoid
a fierce and losing fight among them
selves for It's transportation, and that
their favoritism to this one shipper
was for that purpose, and in consider
alton OF that shippers guaranteeing to
each one it's share of the carrying
business on rates that at least afforded
some compensation. This explanation
is discredited by the fact that they
had already agreed upon a division of
the business of transporting oil. They
had only to live up to their own COM
pact, charge even rates to all shippers,
and a large number of independent oil
refneries would have fourished and
furnished increasing freight to the
roads. The president of the Empire
Company testified that there was no
reason why a shipper of many carloads
should have better rates than the
shipper of one carload.
But ever if it was good policy for
the railroad companies to concentrate
the business in one shipper, this is no
explanation Of the large rebates al
lowed. The unanimous testimony is
that a rebate of ten cents per barrel
would have accomplished this result
as inevitably as the rebates allowed.
These immense sums must have been
allowed, not for concentrating the
traffic in a single, steady hand, but
also for enriching somebody. In the
case of the American Transfer Com
pony, already noted, the implication is
irresistible that some of it's immense
earnings, more correctly, perhaps, it's
loot, went through hidden channels to
the railroad managers, who had emp
tied those millions from the treasures
of the stockholders into it's Golfers.
But it is right to add that no proof of
this was offered, and there is nothing
to sustain such an inference but the
well-known operation and purpose of
the parasite corporation where that
operation and purpose have been dis
closed.
But the railroad companies have re-
ceived their retribution. After the
revelations of the Cassatt testimony,
and the consequent institution of
many suits in the courts, it became
clear that such determinations were
no longer possible, and the Standard
Oil Company, grown great enough for
that purpose, constructed or acquired
it's own pipe lines to tidewater, and
the railroad companies lost the bust
ness of oil transportation, except the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, with
which the Standard made a contract
guaranteeing it a modest per cent. of
this carrying business, in order to
keep up freight rates, thus again Sc
curing itself by it's cheap pipe trans
portation a great advantage over its
rivals; for as the railroad company
was to receive but a fixed per cent.
of the carrying trade, any reduction
in its rates would operate as a reduc.
ton in its revenues.
I have now reached the point where
I can describe the organization and
| methods of the "Standard Oil Trust"
WIN. L.. WILSON.