The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-02-05
Biz Drop iIl in Oil.

II was admitted today in Standard
| Oil circles that the, recent weakness
Of the shares of the Standard Oil
company in the outside securities
market has, to a large extent been in
fuenced by.the new competition that
has arisehin this country as we'll as
in the Orient. The latter is one of
the strongholds of the: big Rockefeller
concern. The shares Of the Standard
Oil company are perhaps more closely
held than the securities of any other
corporation. The stock is allowed to
take its own course, and at no time
has support by Standard Oil interests
been in evidence.
About 40 per cent. Of the 100000,
600 capital stock of the company is
held by. John D.. Rockefeller, while
Mr.. Rockefeller and his close business
| associates own all the stock with the
exception of something like 150000
shares. Of the latter amount nearly
all is held as an investment, and 1T is
seldom that any OF. it finds its way to
the outside securities market. The
stock Of the STANDARD Oil company
1 2YallaDl0cI POStOoOo -
ed:to afew,! Thousand shares.
Since last May the price OF Standard
! Oilsteck,has declined 208 points to
sea2- a;eshare, the price established
| SaBurdaysin .the&cnrb trading. This
means shrinkage Of S2O9, O00,00o IN
the market yalne. of the Standard Gil
| Compan5's; securities. There is no
considerable speculative interest in
| STANDARD Oil stock, mainly because
/ it's Price is prohi ibitiye OF margin
trading, buS,2D points =isea very great
deal for any stock to fall and; espe-
cially fofsthe higests dividend paying
stock. .iHzthe. market.
/ No satisfactory! explanation of the
dropsin Standard Oil vast forthcoming
until today, when a. person In: close
touch with the=afairss Of the company
Yentnred AN interesting inside. view
of the situation. According to THIS
Eautherity, there is:nos truth Ia the
statement That the productions. of the,
Standard. Oil company is diminish
ing rapsdIy tt is true that the
Pennsylvania fields are not as produc-
tive as they used to be, but the loss.has.
been more than made up by the open
hing OF new regions, which are now
contributing a. large partsof the com
pany's production. The Standard.
OIL company is selling more Oil today
than ever before. but it would be no
surprise to. we'll informed; interests to
hear that it had decided to rednce its:
di7idends and devote the money that
otherwise would be disbursed to
stockholders to meeting the sharp
competition that lately has developed.
Russia is now producing more Oil
than the United States, and although
this product is inferior to that of this
country, it is finding big market in
the Orient. It is feared that the rise
of Texas as an oil producing state will
also make extraordinary competition
for the Rockefeller combine, although
the Standard Oil company is large
purchaser of the product of the Lone
Star state.
This Texas oil, like the Russian pro-
duct. is inferior to that of the combine,
but it is feared by the Standard Oil
company that the Texas output may
vet come into erect competition with
finer oil through the perfection of
refining processes to the Beaumont
product. Thus competition of grave
character has arsen from two widely
separated quarters, and the combine
is understood to have projected
policy designed. to forestall inroads
upon it's business. It is. developing
new wells at strategic points as rapid
ly as possible.
Its latest efforts in this direction
have been in Japan, where Oil pros
pectiing has been going forward on a
considerable scale, and not without
success.
It costs great, deal of money to deal
with oil competition, and it may be
necessary to curtail dividends in or
der to provide funds out of the COM
pany's net earnings to counteract com
petition from Texas and Russia, but
the inside holders of the stock are re-
markably Indifferent about it. They
say that it matters very little to them
what the stock sells for in the open
market. They know what it is worth.
The Standard Oil company paid 4S
per cent, or S4S, 600, 600 in dividends
last year, the largest ever disbursed
by any industrial company.-New
York Commercial.