The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-24
A GREAT FAKE.
The Oil Inspection Law Worse
Than Useless.
Governor Stanley Should Not
Appoint an Inspector.
HIS WORK is A FARCE
Neither the Inspector Nor His
Deputies
Can Inspect the Oil Used in
Kansas,
HIS WORK is A FARCE
And the Office Is a Waste of
Money.

To the Editor OF the State Journal:
Since leaving the great state of Kan
sas, only a few months ago, ! still
take great pleasure in reading through
the columns of your paper the happen
ings throughout the state. Especially
at this time the workings OF the law
makers of your state see that there
are already several hundred bills intro
duced by people who are supposed TO
have the interests of the citizens or the
state at heart, yet many times after
they become laws, it can be easily seen
that the law is protection to other
the oil inspection law that was passed
several years ago. At that time nor
since, did but few people of the state
know who framed the bill that became
a law, whether it was an oil company
that framed it, or some one with the
interests of the people of the state at
heart. After spending ten years of my
life in the oil business within the state,
I assure your readers that it is a grand
farce, and a cost imposed in the peo-
pie of the state, not only in the way or
an inspectors fee, but it gives oil COM
panies within the state a full monopoly
of the business of the state, allowing
them to charge whatever prices for
their goods they may desire, as COM
petitors located outside the state can
not even quote prices to parties in the
state with any intention of making any
shipments into the state. The law
states that all goods before being, offer
ed for sale shall be inspected within the
state, and yet it will not allow more
than five deputy inspectors. Tell me
how five deputies could inspect any
part of the oil that is sold within that
state, to say nothing of outside concerns
shipping in. There are more than 100
oil distributing points within the state,
and I understand that the present in
Spector has but two deputies, yet there
are reports turned in to the state each
month showing that all the oil that is
sold in the state has been inspected.
iT7lx of m
Gil, when there are car lots being I'M
loaded at many points in the state every
day.
To show also as to the monopoly the
law gives the oil companies within the
state, since locating at this place, I am
asked for quotations almost daily from
people in Kansas, where one company
has almost exclusive control of the
business, yet 1 am not permitted to
quote them prices, from the fact that
a simple inspection law keeps me out
from the reason there are no inspectors
to inspect the goods after they are
shipped, and the merchant would not
dare to offer them for sale until they
had been inspected. After writing your
inspector a number of letters he finally
writes me that he sees no way for me to
market goods in the satte, unless 1
establish within the state. Think of it.
a state with fence around it of law
that is no protection to it's people Again,
did you ever hear of any oil being re-
jected in the state. In ten years know
of but one case, and that was the very
best Pennsylvania oil that could be pro-
duced, while in the same car the very
lowest grade oils stood the test as re-
quired. In other words, it is an easy
matter to show the people of the state
of Kansas that under the law it pro-
tects the parties selling the lowest
grades of oils, instead of the people, be-
sides gives companies within the state
a monopoly of the business, and allows
them to charge whatever prices they
may desire, being protected by an in
spection law from competitors who may
be located just over the line.
Think of an inspection law, where the
inspector writes oil companies to know
how many cars of oil they have received
during the month to know how to make
out their reports. Being posted in this
line, leads me to believe that fewer
laws and for the interest of the people
of the state, would be far better for the
people at large. Yours very truly,
E. M. WILHOIT.
Joplin, Mo-, Jan. 81, 1899.
IMr. Without was for many years a
resident of Topeka and was until little
more than a year ago, the local man
ager of the Standard Oil company's
business here. 1t was Mr.. Without who
exposed the farce of oil inspection as
practiced in Kansas. The people of To-
peka who are constantly sold poor oil
and gasoline, that everybody but an oil
inspector condemns, know what a dis
graceful status exists in the machinery
for the alleged supervision of the oil