The Topeka state journal., 1905-02-24

it and to transport it, And the Stan
dard makes the price
Witness Kansas, now getting starVa-
ton prices of the Standard for good and
valuable oil-oiI for which the Standard
was glad to pay high price 50 long as
it wanted to encourage Kansas pro-
ducers. All this Kansas trouble IS an
old story in Pennsylvania The stan
dard Oil company always has Juggied
the oil market to suit itself Pulling It
up when others would buy, dropping II
when it bought; speculatlng Win
stocks; putting on the screws Wneh d
region was obstreperous, as Kansas Is
now. It's manipulations are but the
natural consequence of allowing a BODY
of able. INSCRIPTIONS men absolute con-
troll of the price of a great product'
absolute control of the price OF the
manufactured product.
Daily they levy a tax on US. Their
conspiracy in restraint of trade pays
And it will continue $o pay as long as
they are allowed to control transporta-
ton by rail and pipeline; so long a.
they can secure discrimination IN tnelr
own favor without receiving the punish
ment which the laws of the United
spiracy or restraint of trade and of re-
ceiving rebates.
Study the story of Amalgamated Cop
per. There is the same manipulation
of prices as the Standard Oil company
carried on for years with oil STOCKS
running them up and unloading them
on the public, buying in when prices
dropped, running them up and unload
ing!
A story Of the operation of the Stand
ard Oil crowd in all of these great IN
dustries cannot fail to lead to the con-
clusion that their aim IS to control
these industries as they control oil
They aim to control them by controlling
transportation. Look at the way they
now have Kansas, Colorado, the Indian
Territory and Oklahoma hemmed in.
The Standard Oil company IS IN the
management of every railroad ouuel
which those states with their great nat
ural resources possess 1t sits on the
board of directors of the Atchlson, To-
peka & Santa Fe, the Rock Island, the
Denver & Rio Grandes the Illinois Cen
tral, the Kansas City Southern, the
Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the Mis-
souri, Pacific systems.
1t uses this power on the boards OF
directors to secure illegal advantages
for itself, as in the we'll known case
of the Colorado Fuel and Iron COM
pany.
1t uses this power to see that these
roads do not make a rate low enough
to allow independent shippers to take
oil and iron and copper out of the
country. This is criminal restraint OF
trade. aimed at creating monopoly;
If it is allowed to go on unchecked
there is nothing on earth that can pre-
vent the Standard Oil crowd entirely
at no distant day, all the
natural resources of this country and
all the highways on which these re-
sources depend.
They have the money to accomplish
this. The Standard Oil bank of New
York city has deposits of nearly 200
million dollars. The "crowd" controls
4 chain of banks running across the
1t has ready for use at any
a war budget as great as that
1f a nation. 1t not only has money. 1t
mas a great political machine organ
zed for getting from state and federal
governments the kind of legislation
md the kind of privileges which it
wants. This machine is neither Re |
publican nor Democratic. It is Stand |
lrd Oil and it uses either party to !
suit itself