The Topeka state journal., 1905-08-23
STOP COMPETITION.
Knapp, Webster and Madison
Felt the Mailed Hand.
Railroads Helped the Standard
to Suppress Competitors.

In the September issue of McClure's
Magazine Miss Ida NJ Tarbell gives the
nrst installment of her story of KAN
sas and Standard Oil. It is entitled
what the Standard Oil Did to Kan
sas." Next month she will tell What
Kansas Did to the Standard Oil"
In the September installment Miss
Tarbeu says, in part:
If as its defenders claim the Stand
ard Oil company has ceased to depend
on anything but its size, its superior
organization and its superior knowl-
edge for its power, that is if it lives
and lets live, then it certainly would
not be expected to bother itself about
the few small independent ventures
which had grown up in the state in the
tentative period of its oil history. But
today, just as thirty years ago, it is an
anomalous and uncomfortable thought
to the Standard Oil company that any
body outside of its organization,
should be able to get barrel of the
oil produced in a field into which it
has laid lines and where it has built
tanks. One has almost a feeling that
it is afraid of little efforts-afraid of
them because little things grow! At
all events, no sooner had the company
announced its intention to take care of
machine for killing off competition to
work"put it to work automatically, it
seems to the writer-With no particu-
lar thought and no particular effort at
conceal Iment. The Standard has been
so long in this business of crushing
budding Independent efforts that it
apparently thinks no more of the pro-
cess than the gardener who nipS off
the extra buds from the rose tree.
1.-The American beauty rose can be
produced in its splendor and fragrance
only by sacrificing the early buds
which grow up around it, the youth
full scion of the House of Rockefeller
has declared, and this truth is the
essence of Standard Oil greatness. 1t
was necessary to lop off the "early
buds in Kansas. and 1t promptly and
methodically applied the good old
PENNSYLVANIA machine for such work
invented over thirty years ago and
constantly improved and adapted since
until for Smoothness and noiseIessness
and general efficiency it is unquestion-
ably the most perfect instrument in
competitor.
Standards Ways and Means.
The control of the pipe line as if it
were purely a private undertaking, that
is in no way affected by the laws gov
eerning common carriers, gives the
Standard another powerful club over in
dependent efforts. It could endanger
their supply of crude OIL If they could
not get crude, they would not make re-
fined. But how could this be done? You
have wells let us say at Humboldt Kan.
near the small refinery built there in 1903
The Standard also has a tank farm at
this point and it has connected, or is in
the process of connecting all the wells
in the vicinity-by its pipe lines. You
have been giving oil to Mr.. Webster who
runs the independent refinery, but only
a small portion. You want the Stand
ard to connect with your tanks. NO."
the Standard says, you have been Civ
ing oil to our competitor You know
our rules" You will stop feeding the
Webster refinery or you can't sell to the
Standard. and as the Webster refinery
cannot possibly use over one-twentieth
of your oil you are in a dilemma This
boldt, Kan, in 1904, when the Standard
began its campaign to shut off the
Webster refinery.
The same thing happened in Musco-
gee. l. T. Hither came in the summer
of 1904 a young refiner-Charles Madi-
son-and built a plant of perhaps 200
barrels capacity. Now the Standard had
already put up a. storage tank at Mus
cogee, and had connected with the
wells. One of the producers made a
contract with Mr.. Madison for a certain
proportion of his oil. The day that the
first oil was delivered to the refinery
ten of that producers wells were dis
connected by the Standard. See what
tHlS LiedAS. nave mace myself the
only transporter of your product. If
you raise corn or wheat or hogs YOU
must sell them all outright to me, or 1
viii take none. If you sell portion
to the local man who is trying to man
ufacture also, the balance of your prod
uct can go to waste. I, the only trans.
porter will not carry it out of the coun-
try!
Old Standard Tricks.
l. E. Knapp, of Chanute, had gone
into the Chanute field in 1899, and had
found market for his oil with the
Omaha and Kansas City gas companies.
He transported the oil to these concerns
in tank cars of his own. each of which
held about 800 gallons of oil and he
had enlarged his market until he had
twenty cars in transit The railroad
charged him ten cents per one hundred
pounds from Chanute to both Omaha
and Kansas City, and they counted the
weight ga pounds per gallon. They also
allowed Mr.. Knapp three-fourths OF a
cent rental per mile for the use of his
tank cars. The price at which Mr.
Knapp sold his product was not brought
out IN the testimony in which the above
facts were developed, but presumably il
was reasonable one for this ARA anee-
ment went on with apparent profit to
Mr.. Knapp until May, 1902 when sud
denly he was informed that henceforth
the weight of crude oil would be reck-
oned at IA pounds per gallon It was
equivalent to an advance of $3.50 per
carload. This change came two weeks
after Mr.. Knapp had signed a years
contract with the gas companies he was
supplying. But while the freight on
crude oil had been raised $3.50 a car by
Keen Your Liver