The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-18
ROCKEFELLER
GETTING OUT
Taking His Money Out of
Standard Oil Company.
CRASH Is LOOKED FOR
Decrease in Supply of Oil
Means Ruin to People.
CRASH is LOOKED FOR

York World.
He has thrown his enormous surplus
wealth into railroads. He has correlated
the most powerful bank in the country.
He has reached out for electric lighting
. of this city. Every day he is grasping
more railroads. more trusts, more bust
ness enterprises.
And simultaneously with all these great
financial transactions come the declara-
lions of biologists that the oil fields Of
Pennsylvania and Ohio are being worked
out, and that Texas districts cannot last
many years longer.
With this warning from the experts in
view the Standard Oil Trust a few days
ago advanced the price of oil cents a
barrel
There were, it is said. two purposes for
this advance The first was TO get every
dollar from the consumers while the sup
ply of oil lasts.
The second was to cause producers t.
bend every energy toward discovery Of
new oil pools.
1t is an indisputed fact that oil pro-
duction in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and West Virginia has been steadily de-
creasing for two years.
Throughout the entire oil regions there
are black and dismantled hunks of life
less wells the skeletons of fat properties
sucked dry and abandoned by the oil
octupus. Dynamite toTpeGoes will not
cause them to render up half a dozen
barrels of oil. They are dead and de-
serted.
1t is only q question of few genera
TONS according to scientists, when the
h. frar he
earth, and the product remaining below
the surface viii not be worth mining for.
Fbr while the oil wells at Beaumont.
Tex. seemed 10 raise the hopes of the
STANDARD Oil Trust 1t had reached out
its tentacles and grasped so many prop
critics that it found no difficulty in buying
oil in the new Texas district
But the fields of Beaumont also threat
en- to collapse in time, and the oil octopus
has received small encouragement from
the conditions there.
The wells at Beaumon are all included
in an arena of eighty acres Beyond that
area borings for oil seem TO have yielded
no results.
Some Of the wells yield enormously
at first, but their daily average output
has decreased in an astonishing way.
The question that now interests the Stan
dard OIL Trust is, How long will the
wells continue to yield profitable out
flow in such a small territory? Some
time sa we'll has gushed at the rate of
30.0eo gallons a day for a few weeks, and
after that could be made to yield only
q few hundred gallons a day.
The discovery of the decrease in the
oil supply and the possibility of its total
exhaustion seemed to come to John d.
Rockefeller and his colleagues in the
spring of 1901. At that time the stock
sold at S42.
Since that time it steadily dropped. with
only a few reactions, until within year
ii reached $50. Between this point ami
$40 it has since fuctuated
Another argument for the truth of the
report of the failure of petroleum lies
In the fact that the Standard Oil Com
pany has been using oil which had been
stored in tanks to be available in cases of
emergency. Petroleum well-diggers have
been prospecting in many new fields In
Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio,
but have not encountered great success.
although several new wells have ben
found which are producing largely, but
other districts have dried up entirely.
The fact is the Standard OH stock is
Low very closely held. and the improved
uethod. of refining will in time make
available much OF the petroleum now
found in the new fields in the South
west Experiments have been made with
Beaumont OF land California oil and al
though not containing as large a per-
centage OF naphthas the oil itself -
cheaper and if the Standard OIL secures
control of the big wells the profits from
the sale of oil for fuel purposes will on
set the shrinkage from the illuminating
oil obtained from the eastern fields.
When the stock sold a year ago at its
hiSh record OF SO. which is nearly 200
points higher than the sale made re-
Gently. considerable stock was disposed
of to outsiders. During this decline much
OF this stock which was then distributed
has been bought back by the original
sellers. until now there seems TO be Il
very limited supply ahoat.
There is no doubt that even should
the Standard Oil output continue uns-
bated Mr. Rockefeller would have SOME
difficulty in investing his income Of
s.. Oc0ooo week safely or profitabiy.
With $1,000 day rolling into his cot-
comes a huge nightmare.
Another significant fact which shows
that John r. Rockefeller is gradually
weaving his interests from the STANDARD
OIL is that OF his son. John d. RockA-
teller, Jr. is being trained as a railroad
manager rather than an expert in oil.
1t is believed that the elder Rockefeller
has impressed upon him the fact THAI
the time viii come when mineral oil wiD
no longer be a safe foundation for MS
fortune.
Since the gradual drop in Standard Oil
stocks begun its market value has shrunk
over SIS. oooco0. Mr.. Rockefeller's loss
by this shrinkase is in excess Of 49,
c00,ea.
The entire capitalization OF the trust
may be placed 1T about Seeo.eo9.0oo. cf
which John D Rockefeller owns about
$50 oeo.oo
At intervals IL has been rumored that
he would retire from the OH Trust. pos
ably on account OF fear OF the future OF
the oil industry. This is scarcely III
Imminent possibility, however. ash rs
proats from this source alone are mvrs
than $50 eoo.oeo year.
The entire failure OF the Standard on
Trust would not hamper in the least he
onward progress OF this colossus which
bestrides the world offnance.
II would cut his income down TO 500