The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-16
A WORLDWIDE TRUST.
1t Is on the Eve of ConSum-
nation by the Standard
Oil Company.
TEN YEARS IN CONTEMPLATION.
Only the Sanction of the Russian
Government Remains to Be
Secured.

If the Standard Oil Company succeeds
in concentrating the scheme it has been
working on for the last ten years, the price
CT petroleum will, in all probability, take a
jump that will pale into insignifcance the
recent advance made in that article. This
is nothing less than com bination whereby
the petroleum output of the world will be
under the absolute control of the Standard
Oil Company and of the Nobel Brothers of
Sweden, who now control the oil product
of the great Baku wells of Russia and the
European oil market.
The trust has virtually been completed,
and needs only the sanction of the Russian
Government to make it master of the sit
uation.
1t was a knowledge of this situation that
induced John Richards, publisher and edi-
tor of Industry, who has been kept in close
touch with the matter by his extensive
European advices to send the following
communication to the board of directors of
the Manufacturers and Producers Asso-
citation of California:
The recent duty on petroleum, trick to tax
this CITY. and the now imminent international
combination OF the Standard Oil Company, are
things that directly affect this City and the
coast
portant and is now more extensive, than in
any other portion OF this country, and the
writer BEES TO suggest that resolution OF your
honorable body, addressed TO the Government
or Ministers of Russia, might aid in stopping
this villainy that now awaits action by that
Government.
The only action thus far taken by the
Manufacturers Association was to refer
this communication TO the committee on
grievances -
IN the course of an interview with Mr.
Richards ON the subject, he said that the
duty of 40 per cent ad valorem placed on
petroleum and all its products by the last
Congress was the work. OF the Standard Oil
Company and was done to give them, pre-
slmably, greater strength in bringing the
Nobel Brothers TO their terms, as the impo-
sition of the customs tariff Of 40 per cent
virtually excluded the Russian product
from the market
81 Mr.. Richards thinks that if suitab Bile
representation is made 10 the Russian
Government from the proper quarter the
well-laid plans of the oil octopus can still
be frustrated, it does not seem probable
that the Russian Government will be-
come party to a condition of affairs
which would place not only the oil con-
sumers of the world but nearly the entire
population of the Russian Empire, which
depends largely upon petroleum Tor fuel
and Illuminating purposes, at the mercy of
few sordid individuals
The Nobel Brothers now control the
trade of Europe and have that portion
of the world divided off into districts,
much the same as the Standard Oil
Company has the United States, with
an agent in each.
1t is the further opinion of Mr.. Richards
that the recent rise in the price of petro-
leum was made possible and induced by
the import tariff placed on that COM
modify This increase was restricted and
governed by this duty, but should the in
ternational Oil combination be effected
prices will be. entirely shaped by the sweet
viii of the greatest combine ever recorded
in history.
In proportion to her interests and popu-
lation, concluded Mr.. Richards. Califor-
MIA has more to lose by anything that in
creases the cost of either crude or refined
petroleum than any other State in the
Union, as owing to the high price of coal
and gas, resort is more largely had to the
crude oil for fuel and to the refined product
Tor Illuminating purposes.