The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-23

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
The book might have been called "The
Working Out Of the Great Purpose the
caption Of one Of the chapters, for thru it
all runs the thread Of the life ambition
of one man. While yet the oil industry
was in it's infancy, Rockefeller, farsighted
beyond all others, saw the possibilities,
rying Of this ambition thru a forty-year
periodic Of strife and antagonism, to per-
feet realization, is the story Of the book.
The company,s Foundation. ....
Organization, knowledge. Aggressive
ness-these, with greed, were the stones
upon which the ediflce was reared.
Rockefeller drew about him the ablest
men in the business. j The best brains the
commercial field could afford were mono
too good for the Standard. The organize
| ton became in time the most complete,
comprehensive and far-reaching <cf the
commercial and financial enterprises in
America. The knowledge of. the business
ranged from the producing of the crude
product to the making of the highest quail
| ity of refined oil or by7product, from the
selling ofS{oil cargoes- for export to the
selling Ola lampwiclz at home. Every
thing new was absorbed at once, it's pos
sibilities investiga ted the whole threshed
out. The Standard knew the oil business
better than any company in the world.
i The aggressiyeness was Auntrammeled by
any old-fashioned ideas pf%business NOR
atty. The company was out to make
money and Knew nothing else., IT. stood
the: assaults ofsthA courtsT, fought the peo-
pie and the producers ,and the competing
refiners, and beat them all. I. 1t bought leg
islatures and put its'f own man into the
United States senate Every year it grew
+ more powerful. II Il.
L. To-.
The Producer, Its Enemy.
Always from the time. when the Rookie
Teller influence first began to, be felt, in
the Pennsylvania oil regions, to the pres
ent day, when the fight is on in Kansas
the irreconcilable enemy of the STANDARD
has been the. producer. How the STANDARD
has fought the producer thru the years
and how the producer has again = anc
again been crushed, forms dramatic ma
terial for the book. Not one oil war, bu1
many, make up Standard OIL history
When the producers discovered that, in.
stead of selling their oil to the STANDARD
, at the Pennsylvania wells; or submitting
, to the extortionate transportation charges
and the discrimination Of the railroads, al
more or less under Standard influence
they could pipe the oil over the noun
tains to the seaboard, the Standard facet
. a serious proposition. The organizing O
the Tide Water Oil =: company and tn,
: building Of the pipe line was thought t,
; sound the k1lell for the Standard. Blu
before the new company had finished it
I lines and set the first stream Of oil flow
ing, the Standards had absorbed the indie
pendent seaboard refneries. and again tn
producers had to sell to the one buyer
The pipe lines finally had to sell out t
the. Standard. :. ....
: Years Of Fatness. ~
: Following the fight for the seaboar
> control the Standard thrived amazingly
t Mammoth steamships Of the tank typ
were built from the earnings and million
went into other extensions. Still tn
] millions piled up. = =
The first Standard Oil company was
I $1,000,000 corporation. It was establishe
p in 1870 This company represented tn
o Eingenuity of Rockefeller, who, under cove
of a charter ISSUED to the South Improve
Il ment company, had effected secret com
. pact with the railroads by which the Stan
dards received not only a rebate on a
: oil shipped, but a rebate also on all o
9 shipped by it's competitors: No indepen
: Edent could do business against such odd:
and soon some twenty-five refneries. a
! Cleveland were absorbed by the STANDARD
It was case Of come in, Or be crushed.
): 's .hh Amazing Profits.
- The. business man of today will gas
X at the profits In the year 1877 the pre-
4 ductton-Of crude Oil fell off, Prices of re
fined rose by great leaps. Prices of crud
q did not Share the advance. The man VIII
produced the oil saw his business go t
! ruin, and his profits positively eaten U
z: by the exorbitant charges of the Star
8 dard for gathering and storing the OF
: Meanwhile the Standard had squeeze
: on in refined, and actually sold oil *
= export for S5 cents a gallon that cost
a cents a gallon OH board ship. That yes
8 the Standard, on a capitalization
d So, 500, 900, made approximately 8,000,0 OF
j.. in profits, for it paid out in dividends
Is, stockholders the total Of $3,24s,650.01, an
n one Of the stockholders, Samuel Andrew
q afterward testified on the witness stan
3 that the company might have paid tn
= twice over and had money left.
Il Little wonder that the Standard cou
in 1882 increase its; capital to $40, 900, o.
I and six years later earn $16,0O0,OOO in
YEAR
ss Today the Standard has for profits
II stream Of not less than $4,000, 900 floWir
: !, in every year.
IN The Ethical Cost. .
y ! The ethical cost Of it all is a consider,
= ton taken up near tho close of Miss Ia,
= bells book. The strange mixture Of bus
= ness ability and business vice Is careful
~ analysed. The wonderful foresight tn
sent the Standard agents abroad to cal
Il ture the markets OF the world, and q
liability of the management to adapt ftse
s. to any conditions found abroad, speal
for the American 1bHsiness man. ri
p ruthlessness with which the Standal
m killed competition at home comes on Y
other side Of it. The story reeks WI