Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-07-16

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had Eject AZ Hounding the standard on
Company From the State.
The withdrawal OF the Standard Oil
Company from Ohio is announced. The
cause of the move is the series OF on
slaughts made on the corporation by
the attorney general of the State. The
company has become tired of being
treated as a public enemy 1t will re-
organize under the laws Of New Jer-
sey.
This withdrawal means great deal
more than the transfer of the corpor-
ate domicil To be sure, such a trans
fer means that Cleveland, where the
company has always had its headquar-
tiers, will lose large Office force and
immense deposits of money; but these
are small items when compared with
the great manufacturing plants which
are to be abandoned The refinery
at Cleveland, the parent establishment,
and the second largest OF its kind in
the world, is to be left idle. Its coop
erage factory-the largest one ever OPP
erated-is already closed.
1t is hardly too much to say that the
Standard Oil Company is to Cleveland
what the Union stock yards are to Chi
cago. Each concern is the head Of one
of the greatest industries of the times.
There is a great deal of refining in
other cities than Cleveland, as there
is a great deal of packing outside of
Chicago, but Cleveland is largely in
debted to the manufacture of kerosene
from petroleum for its extraordinary
prosperity. 1t owes more to John
Rockefeller than to any other dozen
citizens.
When the oil fields of Northern Penn
sylvania were filling American homes
with brilliant and cheap but disa-
greeable light, Mr.. Rockefeller, then
a poor man On a small salary, conceiv-
ed the idea of a great central eompa-
ny to handle the product and improve
the methods of manufacture. No
doubt the oil producers have had no lit
tie cause of complaint against the
Standard, but the general public has
had no reason to complain, and never
has had. Quality has been improved
to the point as near perfection as it is
possible to attain, and prices have
been reduced and kept so low as to
occasion no complaint.
Ohio has not only had its fair share
of these benefits, but the lions share
from the benefits from the maunfac-
lures to which the business has given
rise. Thousands of workingmen in
Cleveland alone have for years been
employed at good wages in the plants
of the Standard Oil Company. All of
them will now suffer. No industry,
no class of people, can be benefited by
the withdrawal Of the company from
the State. Even the producers, how
ever bitter their feeling may be in the
case, must see that they can derive no
advantage from the change of base.
1t is impossible to conceive any public
advantage from the pursuit of policy
which is depriying Cleveland of
great industry and thousands of labor
ing men of employment, except as
they follow the company in its migra-
ton eastward.
The attorney general of Ohio may
think he is making himself popular
with the people by compelling a great
corporation to leave the State, but the
people-especially the people of Cleve-
land--cannot fail to see that indul-
gence in spite work has brought relief
from no burden, and in thousands of
families is bound TO substitute gaunt
idleness for comfortable industry
Chicago 1nter-Ocean.