Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1904-04-14
WHY. OIL WAS REDUCED.
Interesting Information Regard
ing This Matter.

company in cutting the price Of
crude petroleum six cents during
the past week or ten days, has
been quite a surprise to most OF
the talent, and they are at a loss
to understand why it has been
done, considering the fact that
there is very little work going
on in any of the fields and that
the stocks above the ground have
been dwindling to such an extent
, that it is almost impossible for
the big company to secure enough
oil to to fill their contracts.
Some years ago the Standard,
through it's buying agent, Joseph
Seep, of Oil City, issued circu-
lar letter to the effect that no
more certificates for oil would be
issued, but that in the future the
Standard would buy the oil at the
price which the markets of the
world dictate. This was a big
bunko scheme. and it has been
carried out ever since. AS long
as the trust would issue certlti-
Gates to the operators for their oil
there was a chance to work the
market and this was frequently
done. The operators could 60 in
to the open market and sell their
certificates, and if a firm or one
man got hold of a certain amount
he could force the price up to
where he wanted it, and the
Standard had to follow suit. This
has been changed, and now the
operators and producers are COM
PEELED to take just what the
Standard wants to give them for
their production.
1t is a fact worth noting that
while the price of crude oil has
dropped six cents during the past
week or ten days there has been
no decline in the price of the re-
fined. The poor people who are
compelled to use oil as an illum-
inant are forced to pay the same
price for it now as they were be-
fore the price for crude was lop-
ped off to the tune of six cents.
One would naturally suppose the
rise or decline of the crude mar
ket would have some effect on the
refined, but it does not as far as
the Standard is concerned.
A well known oil man of this
city who keeps an eye on the
market and the development of
the country as close as anyone,
remarked this morning that the.
producers were philanthropists
without knowing it, and when
asked to explain remarked that
he had noticed in the newspapers
during the week that John D.
Rockefeller, head of the Stand
ard, had made a donation of half
a million dollars to the Johns
Hopkins hospital, of Baltimore.
"You don't suppose said the
oil man, "that John d. Rookie
Teller, out of the goodness OF his
heart, is going to let loose of all
that money and not get it back?
No. sir! 1t is his intention to al
low every oil producer in the
country who is compelled to do
business with him, in on the dona-
ton, and for that reason has re-
duced the price of oil. 1t is the
same way when he makes a dona-
ton to the Chicago University or
to the Baptist church in Cleve-
land. The operators are COM
mencing to get next to these
things now and as soon as they
see a story in one of the papers to
the effect that John has made a
donation, they Immediately rush
to the pipe line Office and dispose
of their oil. They are getting
wise.n
There is little doing in the
fields at present. During the
winter the business was tied up
ON account of not being able to
get water, and now the roads are
in such condition that no mater
ials can be gotten over them. The
oil men have been up against a
harder proposition during the
past six or eight months than
they have ever had to contend