The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-10
TO OPPOSE THE STANDARD
Armour, Pullman and Morris Enter
the Kansas Oil Fields

SAO GASaISdAS vi =
Information of a character which
leaves no doubt as to its authenticity
has reached the governors office that
a syndicate of Chicago capitalists COM
posed of p. d. Armour, Nelson Morris
and George NJ. Pullman has quietly Sc
cured control of over 5000 acres Of valu
able oil fields in southern Kansas and
the Indian Territory, and is making
preparations to inaugurate an oil war
against the Standard Oil company
which will be the most stubbornly pros
ecuted of any known to the commercial
world in recent years. This in con-
nection with the dash of Armour and
Pullman in the cracker business, has
created a great deal OF speculation.
The scheme is Of such proportions
and means the investment and fate of
such vast amount of wealth that all
operations have been carried on very
quietly, in order to keep the Standard
Oil company in the dark. The name
of the company which dares to enter
the lists against the powerful Standard
Oil company is the Morris Oil company
of Chicago. The leases, deeds and
contracts have been made in the name
of this company, although at first, in
order to allay suspicion, they were
made in the name of its agents.
The plan of the company was first
set in motion along in January of the
present year. During the past few
months experts have been on the
grounds at work, experimenting with
the oil. WOrkmen have also been en-
gagged in boring wells and at present
there are several ready for active op-
Grafton. About July 1, according to
present plans, the company will begin
the erection of an immense refinery.
When it shall have been completed and
ready for operation the oil war Will be-
gin.
Aside from the fact that the oil fields
of Kansas afford a splendid opportunity
for new company, there is another
more attractive reason which enticed
RIM ToF1l lima md fO
the oil business at this time. They
have never been able to break into the
Standard company. Here, at last was
an opportunity to bring the Standard
Oil company to time and force it to sell
a portion of its stock as a compromise.
The Standard Oil company, several
months ago, got an mixing of the i'm
pending war and has been making eX-
tensive preparations for it. It has Sc
cured control of a large area of the oil
fields near Neodesha, Wilson county. 1t
has just completed a large refinery
which covers several acres of ground
cost over $500 900 and has a capacity of
1900 barrels of oil a day. This re-
finery has just been started and the
first shipment of oil from it was made
last week from NeOdesha to Lawrence.
1t is reliably stated here that it has
decided to construct a pipe line from
Neodesha to Kansas City, establish a.
large central shipping station at the
latter place and thus, by manipulation
of freight rates and directness Of
freight communication, endeaVor to Sc
cure monopoly of the oil trade of the
entire west. From Neodesha to Kan
sas city it is 157 miles. It is estimated
that the line will cost to lay in the
neighborhood of So 900 a mile.
The supply of oil is said by experts
to be inexhaustible. The state oil in
spectors, who have tested it, assert that
the Kansas product is superior to the
oil from the Ohio and Indiana. fields,
and the equal, if not the superior, of
that from the Pennsylvania oil fields
They also say that the Kansas oil fields
will not only be a BILE to supply the de-
mand of the state, but of the entire
west. At present there are rich oil
fields in Wilson, NeoshO, Woodson and
Chautauqua counties.