Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-08-08
THE TRUSTS.
Continued from second page.


economic theory above expressed it
very soon became a matter of good
business policy to combine all the
companies doing an oil business and
in 1882 every known oil refinery in
the United States came into the com
bination now known throughout the
world as the Standard Oil Trust.
The trust was in perfect working
order for ten years when congress
passed the present Sherman Anti
Trust law. The company had a for
NAL dissolution but it then retained
and still retains its effectiveness. In
1870 the company sold oil for 20 cents
per gallon, in 1875 for 13 cents per gall
lon, in 1850 9l2 cents per gallon, in 1885
for cents per gallon, in 1890 for z
cents per gallon and in 1898 for 81
cents per gallon. During all this time
the company had a complete monopo-
ly of the oil trade and had unlimited
power to fix the price of oil and yet
the price steadily decreased. 1t is
reasonable to suppose that the COM
pany made more money selling 615
cent oil than it did selling 915 cent oil.
We need not attribute this reduc-
ton to any charitable feelir g on the
part of Mr.. Rockefeller, but rather to
his ability in earning dollars for the
Standard Oil Company.
This reduction has been brought
about through large scale production,
utilization of waste materials, discov-
cry of new processes of refining,
cheaper methods of transportation
and a strict attention to details.
Many of these economies would have
been impossible but for the CONSOLE
dation of the different oil refineries,
which in 1890 numbered over one
hundred, located in nine different
states. Today the Standard Oil Go.
operates thousands of miles of gigan-
tic pipe lines. 1t owns thousands of
tank cars used in place of barrels.
1t owns thousands of large storage
Nelhho az d4IlOuN oLO AZ lao
thousands of tank wagons delivering
oil at the very doors of retailers.
Such a system oftransportation would
be utterly impossible under any other
form of management, and whatever
may be the evils of the Oil Trust, the
fact remains that itean sell oil cheap
er than would be possible under any
system of transportation. The beef
trust too which is so justly accused of
wrong doing can buy live beef on the
western plains, dress it in Chicago,
ship it to New England and under-sell
the native wholesaler and retailer.
This is because it takes advantage of
doing business on large scale and
allows no waste. The hoofs, horns,
hides, hair, blood and entrails more
than pay the cost of dressing and
transportation. What the local
butcher throws to the dogs or buries
in the ground, the beef trust sells to
US in the form of gelatine, mattresses
and deviled ham. The same business
principle applies with equal force to
all trusts. W. even see it worked
out on Ter scale in our CO.
oper Aleries.
ien is established, that
ere to stay. They are
auence to many COM
Aties which have arisen
selopment of the industries
alton and they are indispensa-
further growth and develop
At. We cannot however pass final
dgment upon the trusts until we
ave considered some of their evils.
The greatest danger of the trusts
lies not in their effect upon the COM
mercial status of the country, but
rather in their relation to society. / dc
not mean the exclusive four hundred
of New York city or the arif tocracy
CT Newport, but 1 mean the great anC
varied population of the entire coun'
try including all classes alike. The
danger is social rather than CONNER.
cial. 1t is not because they are trusts
or because of powers given them by
law, but because they often usurI
powers other than their own anC
which were not contemplated by the
power which created them. They
are often governed by men who art
so avaricious that they worship the
American dollar and are willing t
place the happiness and welfare o
.heir fellow men upon the altar as :
sacrifice to their idol. But all trusts
are rot constructed aftt r this manner
and the philanthropy of some is al
conspicuous as the avarice of others
The particular charges which are
made against the trusts are that such
vast aggregations of wealth give toe
great social power to few men and
thereby create a money aristocracy
Z ut H.