Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-03
ROCKEFELLER'S
 REBATE SYSTEM
Miss Tarbell Says It Made the
 Standard Oil Trust.
RELATION WITH RAILWAYS SHOWN

Remarkable Chapter of the History of MOnopo1istic Combination In
 which a War of Indiv1duaIs on
 the Rebate System Is Depicted.
 How the on 1Iagnate Freed Him.
 seIf From the Ra1Ir0ads.
 The following is an extract from Miss TarbelFs History of the Stand ard oil Company in McCIure's for December:
 General Butler knew something of the oil business. Four years before he had been employed by the Pennsylva- mia Transportation company to take eare of the legal side of their great un- nertaking seaboard pipe line-and ! he had had convincing experience of the Standards power. He reviewed the history of the oil business, making few minor mistakes in his historical facts, but never missing the big facts and leaving no doubt at all about his opinion of the Standard Oil company. He presented the committee with 8 pretty full collection of embarrassing testimony, calling particular attention to MT. Cassatt's revelations in 1877, and demanded an investigation. He had no backing in the oil regions, how ever, and his appeal was the last made to congress from the oil regions.
 The situation was saved at this crit lcal time by individuals scattered through the oil world who were re- solved to test the validity of MT. Rocke- IeIler's claim that the coal oil business belonged to him.. we have right to lo an independent business" they said, Rand we propose to do it." They began this effort by an attack on the weak bpot in MT. Rockefeller's armor.
 ! The ten years just passed had taught them that the realization of BIT. Rockefeller's great purpose had been made possible by his remarkable manipulation of the railroads. It was the rebate which had made the Stand ard Oil trust. the rebate, amplided, Systematized, glorifled into power never equaled before or since by any business of the country. The rebate bad made the trust, and the rebate, in spite of ten years of combination, pc Lroleum associations, producers un- Ions, resolutions, suits in equity, suits X In quo warranto, appeals to congress, legislative investigat tiohs-the rebate bill was MT. Rockefeller's most eff fective weapon. If they could wrest It from his hand they could do busi- ness. They had learned something else in this period-that the railroads feared exposure of discrimination and could be made to settle rather than have their practices made public. This much the hated compromise of 1880 had demonstrated Therefore, said these individuals, we propose to sue for rebates and collect charges until we make 1t so harassing and danger Dus for the railroads that they will khut down on MT. Rockefeller.
 The case of Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle, which was before the public constantly during the six or seven years following the breaking up of the Producers union, in which the oil re- gions presented no united front to MT. Rockefeller, served to keep public atten- ton on the ruinous effect of the rebate and to strengthen the feeling that dras- tic legislation must be taken if MT. Rockefeller's exploit was to be pre- vented in other industries.
 Another case came out in this war of .ndividuaIs on the rebate system, which heightened the, popular indignation against the Standard. It was case showing that the Standard Oil com pany had not yet abandoned that aunique feature of its railroad contracts by which portion of the money which ather people paid for their freight was handed over to them. This peculiar de velopment of the rebate system seems to have belonged exclusively to MT. Rockefeller. Indeed careful search of all the tremendous mass of materials which the various investigations of railroads have produced shows no other case, so far as the writer knows, of this practice It was the clause of the South Improvement contracts which provoked Ehe greatest outcry. It was the feature of MT. Cassatt's revelations i'll 1877 which dumfounded the public and which no one would believe until they saw the actual agreements MT. Cassatt presented,
 The oil regions as whole did not pesltafe to say that theT believed this