Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-09
OIL IS'ON THE JUMP.
The Standard Knocks Off all
Premiums and the Market Soon
Goes Up Twenty Cents.
PECULIAR TURN IN THE BUSINESS.
Operators and Producers Believe the Order
Will Result in a Revival of
Speculation.
PECULIAR TURN IN THE BUSINESS.
EXCITEMENT HIGH on THE EXCHANGES.
Views Of Various Well-Known Oil Men on the Outlook
for the Trade.

The following order was posted in the
National Transit Office on Fourth avenue
yesterday morning:
on CITY, August s.
Commencing to-day all premiums will be
Withdrawn and the price for the credit bal
ances will be the same as certificates, ex
cepting Tiona oil, which will remain the
same JOSEPH SEEP.
Oil producers, operators and eX-specula.
tors read it, rubbed their eyes, read il
again, and like the singed parrot, asked
Wonder what they are going to do next?'
To say that it created excitement is putting
it mild. For time the trade was stunned
and then it began to figure out how the
order would affect the oil business.
HAS NOT BEEN STRONG.
For the past three days oil men have
been in a state of chaotic nervousness which
they have not felt for nearly ten years.
Thursday an order was issued by the Ma
tional Transit officials equalizing premiums
on all oil produced in New York, Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia. The premium
was to be 10 cents barrel all
around This went into effect
Friday morning, and when the gong closed
the market Friday afternoon the price of
oil had dropped from $50 to so cents bar
rel 1t was the general belief that the
premiums had been equalized for the pur-
pose of killing speculation by stopping the
issue of certificate or speculative OIL As
a consequence brokers became panic stricken
and producers set up a prolonged
howl from one end of the oil country to the
other Bankruptcy stared most of them in
the face, and there were those who believed
they could already see their property in
the hands of the Sheriff They acted like
men without hope, and threats
loud and deep were uttered against
the powers that be in the oil business.
The order yesterday morning came like
thunderbolt. Hope revived Gradually it
began to dawn upon the dazed intellects of
The producers and spectators that there
was still straw to which TO cling. Their
faces frightened; the panic had been
avcrted. The corpse of the last year which
has been lying on the floor of every oil ex-
change from New York TO Pitts
burg has already commenced to
breathe, for yesterday, although
the market was open only two hours, prices
jumped from 30 cents to 70l4, where it
closed Fortunes were made in that time,
and perhaps thousands were lost. This is
the biggest Jump the market has made for
many years, and the like may not be seen
again this century.
on THE EXCHANGE FLOOR.
The scene on the floor of the Exchange
was interest:ng-the first time for months
1t is so long since there was even q
"spash-tiood" in the exchange that the old
time iamboree was hard to raise, and when
Secretary Chaplin announced that there
had been a jump of 934c in Oil City during
The shades of night the brokers looked be-
wildered like a captured hare suddenly re-
leased in front of a pack of hounds and
given the CHARGE of the gauntlet. For time
there was silence profound. This was followed
bv gurgle in the throats of all present
and il seemed as though their whistles needed
wetting, like the sucker of a weather.
cracked wooden pump. Their joints were
rustv and their vocal organs from long dis
use emitted dlsco-ds, but after a time they
struck the old-tIme swing and there was a
din the like of which has not been heard
since the shutdown movement was organ
lied.
But qui bono? No one had any oil to
sell, as for many moons past even shilling
chaser rarely saw reason why he should
buy oil for five-second investment, and no
one wanted to buy wind unless it were oil
scented. No one would buy except on i'm
mediate delivery. Later news was received
that Oil City was paying O. cents for all the
oil in sight. The market closed at 70L
cents for September oil.
Down on Fourth avenue, which might
appropriately be called the general office of
the oil trade, the scene was almost as ami
mated as on the floor above. Every 10 or II
feet were groups of operators eagerly dis
cussinC the situation, and each backing up
his stand by logical arguments. There were
few of them who had recovered from the
equalization of the premiums and 5O-cent
oil 1t had been time of trial and sore
tribulation to the trade, and they recovered
slowly from the shock When the full
meaning of the order knocking off premiums
became generally known, there was scarcely
j man TO be found who did not commend it
as the only move on the part of the Stand
ard which would avert the threatened
panic.
WHY IT WAS DONE.
This was one reason assigned for the move
by a gentleman connected with the Ma
tional Transit Company.
There was such a universal wall from the
producers, he said, .''over the equalization
Of premiums and panic threatened on the
market by the belief that there is only one
buyer Of oil, the Standard, that it was
decided to knock off the premium and let
everybody buy who wanted to do so. Now
they II have an equal chance and no cause
to complain. They can make their own
market, and blame it on whomsoever they
Will ii it don't 90 just to suit them, but the
fact remains that the chances are now even"
The oil scout of The DISPATCH took
turn around among the producers to get in
touch with the prevalent feeling on the sub
iect and found that not one man in forty talked
with but believed that the killing of pre-
miums would help the trade, especially the
speculative business.
WHAT THE OPERATORS SAY.
John NJ. Patterson, the wealthy producer
who holds the prize for opening the Nc
Curdy field, said: There is not question
of doubt but that no premiums will help
the trade. 1t will revive speculation and
cause a fuctuation in the market which we
have not known for years. 1t will put
money in circulation and revive the busi-
ness all around. / think it is the only
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