St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-11
THE L1SsDED OIL TRUST.

The fate Of the linseed oil trust
but adds another to the several
Illustrations already afforded in the
development Of these trade dis
eases, Of the vital fact that the
motive Of their organization is the
sure cause Of their death. Greed gen.
crates them and greed kills them. The
action Of the attorney general OF
illinois, taken to have the trust de-
clared illegal, is but supplementary to
the action Of stockholders taken last
year to ascertain why 1T was that the
glittering promises that induced them
to put their plants into the trust or
to invest their money in It's stocks have
proved so illusory. The genesis of
this trust, as Of so many others, was
in protection. IF all the oil mills could
be gathered under one management the
home market, with the aid Of the tariff
on seed and oil, would be oornered,
and the trust could control both the
price paid for the seed and for the Oil.
In 1887 the National Linseed Oil trust
was formed under that name, but this
was soon changed from trust" to
company" By 1889 1T had succeeded
in bringing into Its grasp fifty Of the
largest mills in the country, giving it
q practical monopoly, and it's modest
capital Of $4,000 was swelled, In Feb
ruary, 1890, when 1t finished absorbing
mills, ninety times, or to $4,000, 900,
-
the other Wo-thirds pure water. It
dismantled six Of the mills In Illinois
and five in Indiana, some twenty in ALL
Simultaneously the price of oil went
UP and that Of the seed went down. It
looked as If Col, Sellers vision was to
be realized in oil, and that there were
millions in it,"
But the natural law, that has proved
superior to all combinations in the end,
had its way with this trust 1t could not
hold price to the point where dividends
could be paid on the water in it's cap
ital. Its greed had overleaped itself.
Then there was the rapacity Of the pro-
moters to be fed out of the profits. This
president got $4,000 a year; one vice
president received $4,000, and two 9TH
ers $1,000 each a year. Then there
were the owners Of the absorbed plants
who had 20 have some Of the ham"
and they, to the number OF forty-flye
were put ON the salary list at from
$4,000 to $4,000 year. Those not thus
stated, some twenty in ALL were made
travelling inspectors at $4,000 a wear.
The salary list was over $25O,OOO year
Meantime the stock, that reached 40
in the earlier bloom Of the trust has
steadily fallen until it is now quoted ar
AS, the SlSOO0,O00 shrinking, under the
merciless valuations of the street. To
$S,240,000, about half of what was ac-
cepted as the value Of the plants in
1889. A committee Of these dissatisfied
Stockholders have succeeded in getting
access to the books and report that the
profit and loss account shows a loss ~
S95I67S in the five years ending Ju1v
q, 1894. The report further shows how
dominating was the spirit of greed
an which the trust had it's inception
In the statement that over SIS, 600 was
drawn from the treasury by the Off
GERS and managers as commissions for
ENDORSING the conpany's paper. There
Is said to be honor among thieves but
none appears among the officers Of this
trust, who did not scruple to rob the in
vestors whose property they directed
In every possible way But there is
no call for sympathy with the invest
prs whose own rapacfty led them to
put their money into a scheme for
plundering the public 1t was a mass
or restoring greed from the start, and
1t is consumed in It's own corruption.