The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-06
STANDARD OIL TRUST TRICKS.
How the Great Monopoly Throttles
Any Competitive Company.

new 10TH JOuTndi.
This is regarded as the most important
statement made by NJ. l.. lockwood before
the industrial commission. 1t preceded his
remarks about Judge Haight:
What Is the process by which the STAND
ard Oil Company people destroy competing
pipe lines?'
To which Mr.. Lockwood replied: For the
last fifteen t years they nave tS Sao o ba
is accessible to the competitive pipe lines.
That is. when new pipe line starts the
the oil in that eS district IS especially vau-
able, and they offer premium for that OIL,
say of 20 or % cents barrel. When they
have destroyed this competitive pipe line
this oil ceases to be valuable, and they take
the premium off.
Let me give you an illustration. In 1887
Western and Atlantic pipe line. They made
their first shipment of oil on Oct. IL, 1891.
AT that time the Standard Oil Company
p people co were paying su for crude oil at the
THE Western and Atlantic pipe line did not
get fairly going until the spring or 1873 BY
that time the IV
per. barrel, and the white, sand OIL or BUT
Ter, Allegheny and Washington counties,
into which counties the Craig pipe iine nao
been built had become so good that the
Standard was paying for that oil 20 and .
cents per barrel premium. which, added to
the cents n IS gave the M OF
at the wells. Refined oil was selling in Au-
gust of that year for rs cents a gallon. in
ss the @ he it MsT o c sy
was paying us for oil at the wells In this
county s1.3O barrel, and refined oil was
for TX cents gallon. Competition was put
ting crude oil up to the producers, and COM
petition was putting refined oil down to the
consumers.
Il have a very vivid remembrance of this
time. / was opening up some territory on
the Little Conoquenessing creek in the
wania, in VIVA What was Known as the Hundred Hundred
Foot Rock. had leased the Cable farm.
the Charley Young. Ed Young. Eyeholtz
and Hayes farms. / was getting some mag
niticent wells. One on the Eyehotz farm
started off a 125 barrels an hour. 1 had one
well on the Charley Young farm that aver
Competition was giving me all this oil was
worth. from $l.l0 to $50 a barrel, and was
getting rich. About this time it became
belt extending from the western part of
Butler county down into the eastern part
Of Beaver Ve county n;sS Pe na Jav
for anything until ] became interested in
about three miles of this oil belt. Starting
on the southwest. got the Fogle farm, the
Kanen, the Shrumm, the Trautman, the
Allen. the Passavant, the Koker, the Fanx-
er. the McCurdy, the Eyeholtz, the Getman,
the Eichenower and the Meyer farms. /
this oil belt-had it all. / thought 1 would
make million. l got some grand wells;
one on the Trautman farm started off loo
barrels day.
About this time the Standard Oil Com
pany gave the Elkins and Kimble crowd
their price and bought their pipe lines and
refineries, and the very next day the prem
ium came off from that oil. 1t was not any
better than any other oil. As soon there
qualities were gone, and from that day
competition was gone. The price of oil
came down, down, down to $1O5 down to
81, down to IS cents, down to so cents, down
10
cents, down to 20 cents, down to 65 cents
down to 60 cents, down to So cents, down to
% cents, and they kept the market down be.
low 60 cents for one whole long year.
Il did not sell a barrel of oil all one year
above 90 cents barrel. The next year
was obliged to sell all my oil below 20 cents
a barrel. They held the market down tc
the fifties and sixties for two long years
below the cost of production, and practical
erty, and instead of having a million alb.
solutely had to mortgage my property &c
pay my debts. and at the end of two years
these wells had got down until they were
little shippers, producing three or four OIL
five barrels apiece. All of the value of thai
g great property had gone into the Golfers Of
the standard Oil Company.
This is the. history of the oil business
under standard manipulation, over and over
and over again: When the producers are
lucky enough to open UP a new field the
Standard will put the price down and con-
fiscate what they get.
newspapers will be full of cock and bull
stories about increase of production, in.
crease of stocks, but the facts are that dur.
ing these years which / have described
when the price of crude oil was pulled down
from $3.50 barrel TO So cents a barrel
the entire increase Of the stocks of oil dur.
ing that period would not supply the con.
sumptfve demand OF the world for two and
one-half months.
"All Of this talk about production and
stocks is mere subterfuge to take from
the producers the wealth they create and
transfer Ii TO the Golfers of the Stapdar I'd
Oil trust monopoly