News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-03-06
TRUSTS.
PHENOMENAL GROWTH OF A
MODERN INDUSTRY.
The Standard Oil OOmpany---There is
Even an Undertakers' Trust.

|
The Standard Oil Company is an IL
lustration showing the modern facilities
of gigantic combinations. The COM
pany began in partnership, during
the early days of the Civil War, be-
tween Samuel Andrews and John
Rockefeller.
Andrews had invented new
process by which greater percentage
of kerosene was extracted from petro-
leum than had been possible under the
old method, and by virtue of this
advantage the company soon became
prosperous. In time, as it gained
strength, it absorbed some rival COM
panies, crushed others, and finally
stood at the head of the business.
Then it extended its operations still
| further. 1t ran its own acid-works
and glue-factories, made its own bar
rels, and controlled the disposition of
| kerosene through the country.
Not satisfied with this, it Degan to
exercise a control over the railroads,
which finally enabled it to crush out all
effective opposition. Vanderbilt once
said that there was but one man in the
country who could dictate to him, and
that was Rockefeller. The Pennsyl-
vania Railroad entered into a written
contract with the Standard Oil Com
pany, by which it agreed to charge
double rates for all oil hauled for other
shippers. When this contract was ex-
fhO To
was made by which the Standard Com
pany was allowed rebate not only on
the oil shipped by it, but on all oil
carried over the railroads. During
1873, rebates to the amount of
Sc, 800, $40 were paid to the company,
and for the seventeen months ending
March 81, 1879, the rebates amounted
to $40, ISL ,218. Similar secret wree-
ments were satered into with sfe New
York Central, the Erie, and the
Atlantic Great Western roads.
A barrel of oil weighing 800 pounds
was carried 400 miles, and the empty
cars returned for eighty cents, while
underground can of milk was car
ried sixty mile, for forty-five cents.
On one occasion an opposition oil-com-
pany had 10000 barrels of oil carried
by pipeline to the side of the Erie
track, the company having agreed to
ship the oil, but an agent of the Stand
ard Company appeared on the scene,
stopped the shipment, and the oil was
still waiting to be shipped when the
matter was Investigated in the New
York courts some months later. This
was but an illustration of another
method by which the Standard Oil
Company used its influence over the
railroads TO crush out its rivals.
1t compelled the railroad companies
to refuse to ship oil for other produc-
ers, and when complaint was made to
President Scott of the Pennsylvania
railroad, he said that all be could do
was to ask the Standard Company to
allow him to carry the oil over his own
road. The passage of the Interstate
Commerce Act has put an end to this
despotism over the railroad companies,
but the facts indicate the unlimited
power of this trust. By the exercise
of this absolute despotism the Standard
Oil Company was enabled to crush out
all effective opposition. Now its
power is not less-it is merely turned
into other directions. The Standard
Oil Company was the first of the mod
ern trusts in this country, but its ex-
ample has been followed by others,
until there is hardly a branch of in
dustry in the country not dominated
by trust. The Sugar Trust is one of
the largest. and is probably most gen
orally known, owing to the frequency
with which it has been brought into
the courts.
The extent to which the organization
of trusts has been carried is barely
realized by those who have not kept
account of the organization Of these
modern monopolies. To give COM
plete list of trusts, or their tortuous
workings, is impossible. They have
the ban of the law placed upon them,
and are naturally ret:cent as to their
business and whereabouts. Let us
glance, however, at few of the arti-
cles known to be controlled by trusts.
If man desires to build a house he
must obtain lumber from a Lumber
Trust, nails from Nail Trust, earth
enware from-an Earthenware Trnst;
the painter whom he employs gets lin
seed-oil from Linseed-Oil Trust and
white lead from a Whitehead Trust;
if he puts a fence around his place he
has his choice between patronzing. the
Lumber Trust or the Barbed- Wire
Trust. The oil-cloth for his floors is
controlled by trust; the stove for
his kitchen comes from trust. The
states and slate-pencils, the rubber
shoes and castor-oil for his children
arr under the control of trusts.
Trusts control the sugar and salt for
his table, the paper enve 'opes for his
correspondence, the paper bags for his
business if he be a retailer. If he be a
farmer he is affected by the Plow-Steel
Trust, the railroad that carries his pro-
duce is oppressed by the Steel-Rail
Trust, the Bessemer Steel Trust, the
Iron Nut and Washer Trust. He may
perhaps avoid other trusts, but he is in
Ganger of coming under the influence
of the Jute-Bag Trust, the Cordage
Trust, the Borax Trust, the Cotton
Seed-Oil Trust, or the Copper, Lead,
Zinc, Nickel, or Tin Trust. And after |
having passed through life surrounded
and hedged in by trusts, he dies-only
to fall into the hands of the National |
Burial-Case Association, or Under
takers Trust. These numerous trusts
have all been created within the last |
few years. The Standard Oil Com
pany was organized as a trust in 1882,
but nearly all the others date from
1887 and later.
What Excites Washington.