Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-03-18
Impudent Hypocrisy.

lines gave to the public the news OF giit
BIZ John d. Rockefeller, to the Unlvers-
;ty of Chicago. of one million dollars. This
deserves more than passing mention. 1t
furnishes text from which can be preach
ed sermon upon the dangerous tendencies
of the times aud upon kind Of hypocrisy
more contemplate, more monstrous and
more insolent than perhaps the world ever
saw before The Pecksniffs, the Urish
| Keeps, and that class of shams are well
known. In the old days of great robbers,
operating with numerous bands of follow
ers, sometimes rising to the size OF armies,
| il was no unusual thing for thief OF
| that kind to seek the favor of the Almighty
| BIZ the endoweme ut of monasteries, and
tie building of cstherdrals. Yet 1t may
be doubted whether any of them ever rose
to the sublimity of iInpudence reached by
| Rockefeller when he announces git OF q
portion of his iIlgotten gains 'as special
thank offering 70 Almighty God" de
speaks to sixty-fve millions of people, and
compal atiyely few among them know that
| every dollar of this ''thank offering to Al
mighty God" has been wrung from the
wreck and ruin of Rockefeller's fellow men
engaged in the petroleum industry. Com
mon decency, and the shame which some
| times come to the most hardened, should
have suppressed this publication By the
| Standard Trust among the people where are
| found the victims Of the insatiate greed OF
| Rockefeller's Trust Here are families left
to struggle with poverty, because their
| heads have been driven to suicide by hope
| less losses in their business of producing
petroleum. Here are men who, by years
of patient industry and attention 10 affairs,
had accumulated property sufficient for
their needs, and producing incomes ample
| for their comfort, W ho stand trembling and
| broken on the brink of insolvency, not
knowing what will yet be the fate of them
selves and their families. Here are prop
critics which few months since were
worth in open market hundreds of thous
ands Of dollars, now being sold by the
sheriff, at from ten to twenty-five cents on
tuO uoAoit VI tnCi ACoA 'oiAO-
For these things the Standard Oil Trust
of which Rockefeller is the head, is direct
ly responsible. Let not the seventh and
eighth days of August, 1891, be forgotten
Let the events of those days rest as curse
upon Rockefellers Trust for all time, for
Almighty God will not be deceived by
such "thank offerings," On those days the
representatives, of Rockfeller's Trust, low
cred the price of oil in every producing
field in Pennsylvania from five to twenty
cents barrel. On those days they stood
in the oil exchanges-which are mere parts
of the machinery of Rockefeller's Trust
and offered to sell large blocks of certiti-
cate oil at constantly lessening prices until
the price of so cents barrel was reached
Since those days the producer ofpetroleum
has not been able to get more from Roche
fellers Trust than s. cents per barrel, and
the average has been scarcely 60 cents.
Oil properties became unsalable, and in
dustrial depression, commercial stagnation
and financial embarrassment hare ruled in
the oil region for more than six months.
1t ia in vain for the representatives OF
Rockefeller's Trust to give out for distant
consumption to coniding newspaper re-
porters that this depression was caused
by .'The Mcdonald Field" or By that latter
invention of the Trust, Russian CoDpeti- |
tion.1 The people in this region know
better, and so does Rockefeller, and all
the chief men managing his Oil Trust.
The great wells of the Mcdonald field had
not been discovered when the Trust gave |
out in June that prices of oil would be
lower, nor bad they reached any alarming |
number or output on the 7th OF August.
As for Russia Competit on" it is com
parativeIy no greater than at any time in |
the past five years. And ifit was,who il
to blame for itf The oil producer ofPenn-
sylvania is not responsible. 1t is to owing
to the insatiate greed of Rockefclier's
Trust, which, not satisfied with less than
the earth, and having seized the control OF
the petroleum industry in America, sought
to driyc Russia from that of Europe, for no
Russian oil comes to America. And there
Rockefeller's Trust met combination, as
greedy, as ruthless, as INSCRIPTIONS and
as corrupt as itself Russia the Rothchilds,
the Nobels, declined to be driven out of
the European trade, and declined to make
contracts which would give the American
Trust control of their business. Ahd SO,
in order that Rockefeller's Trust may di-
vide millions each year by trying |
to undersell Russia, and may make mil
lion dollar thank offering to Almighty |
God" the American oil producer must be
kept poor, driven 10 insolvency, to insani- |
ty and to suicide, and all the homes of our
people be blighted with want and appre-
hension.
Shame on the insolent hypocrite that |
aaunts in the face Of the people he has
plundered his impudent "thank offerings"
Shame on the people that stand by and
make no protest against such rank op- |
preston. .-Titusville Citizen.