The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-02-08
IS DIFFERENT NOW
Ten Years Makes Big Change
in a PopuliSt.
SCOTT VISITS WICHITA
And Tells Business Men Aboul
Beaumont Oil.

A decade makes a big difference in the
IDEAS OF men. Ten years ago F. NJ Scott
washed a poor mans face every morning
IN En,poria and made many prophesies OF
disaster TO conce rom human greed ana
the money power. He thought like a
great many others. that no man could
make much mere thsn 4 Few thousand
dollars 2 year honestly. and that no cor
poration should be allowed TO charge
more for public utilities than actual sx-
penses ard q reasonable profit on the in
vestmeRt- He also thought that q co;por-
alton was tho creature Of the state in
which every citizen should be interested
and that his or her interest should be
respected. Indeed. he went so far as 10
think that any Lyon county man had
right 10 go 20 New York and sec Jay
GOulc's private books to ascertain
whether he was charging an En-, cria
grocery keeper too much profit on : box
Of tomatoes or on a coil Of rope. And
Mr.. Scott not only thought his way. but
no talked this way. and the result was
that when the alliance fever broke out
he became q big man in the movement
and was actually nominated for congress
He afterwards became an alliance lect-
urer. then 4 miriOn OF the railroads.
later an oil king and now yice-president
and general promoter of an asphaltum
corporation. It was IN this capacity that
he came TO Wichita yesterday and is now
here promoting his asphaltum business.
Mr.. Scott like a great many others.
at one time fought the Standard OIL ccto-
pus. is not fighting II now. and yesterday
lie told quite L number of gentlemen in
the Chamber of Commerce room that
10
people on TIE hack and that they do not
intend to enter the refined oil field in op-
position to them He said his company
woGld confine itself strictly to ssphaltum
products and lubricating oil on q smaller
scale.
Mr.. Scott explained tie nature # his
enterprise yesterday to sor Of tho di-
rectory of the Chamber of Commerce and
it was quite an interesting talk. He told
of the development Of the oil Industry
in Texas and how he met party who had
a forpulae for making 4 per cent Of as
Dhaltum out OF the crude oil found at
Beaumont. The result Of this was the
formation Of a company, with Senator
Towne Of Minnesota, al the head Of it.
to manufacture asphaltum and kindred
products. including rubber. out Of this
oil. The company IS no werecting a plant
in Texas at the cost of a quarter CT n
million dollars and with d capacity Of
about 400 tons Of asphaltum FER day. This
asphaltum, Mr. Scott claims. IS lracti-
cally 100 per cent pure while the natural
product taken from Trinidad lake, and
which is used by tho Barbour conn any,
is only about % per cent pure. He says
he can meet the prices made by tho Bar
botr company no matter what they make
them. ard intimated very strongly that
there is a profit in the manufacture of
the article nj Sl25G per ton, although the
market price is now Si2 per ton. He said.
however. that a German company offered
them So per ton for tie entire output,
but that they refused it
AIR Scott showed specimens Of the as
phaltum and concluded by inviting mon
led men TO come to his hotel Unlike. the
DAYS cf yore. when his latch 5tring was
out 10 the poor. he said that he had no
time 10 spare for anybCdy but capital
lists and to them he would show some
secret circulars, giving revelations con-
corning the cost of production and the
profits that can be made. Everybody in
the room were puzzled as to what Mr..
Scott meant by capitalists. as nc did not
designate what amount Of wealth n man
shoule possess 10 be entitled to place in
th,t class
I'D 10 the present moment. few OF those
who were present quite understand what
Mr.. Scott is here for. He saws he TIA not
come to sell anything. Mr.. Dickson who
listened TO him closely. is Of the opinion
that he is mere fer the purpose Of or
gar fzing n company in Wichita 10 make
this : distributing point in southwestern
Kansas for his asphaltum. He spoke
about the large business that could b
done with Winfield. Wellington. Newton
and other points. as If either town has
any idea OF paving streets with asrhal-
tuu.
The Chamber Of Commerce took no ac-
ton in the matter, and. as q matter Of
fact, President DAVIDSON left tho meet
Ing while Mr.. Scott was stnl speaking.