The Topeka state journal., 1905-09-27

BASIS OF COAL.


In the current issue of McClure,s
Magazine Miss Ida NJ. Tarbell gives
the second installment of her story of
Kansas and Standard Oil. In it she
reviews the we'll known story of last
winters agitation and legislation
against the oil trust. In telling what
has been accomplished since the leg
islation was passed, however, Miss
Tarben gives information that will un-
doubtedly be new to most people, par.
11eularly as to the outcome of the suit
to place the Santa Fe in the hands of
q receiver. Miss TarbelI says:
The oil men soon saw that the
problem outran the boundaries of the
state, that 1t was an interstate and an
international problem, that what they
needed was something more than re-
hneries at home, that they must have
markets in other states. at the sea-
board, abroad that is, that they must
get Kansas oil into the worlds market.
Taught to believe that the only world
marketer was the Standard Oil COM
pany, they now learned that there was
at least two great foreign competitors
of the Standard which would be as
glad to get their product for refining,
as the Standard itself, if it could only
be brought to the seaboard. Indeed.
hardly had the legislative war closed,
when offers to take 10000 barrels of
crude oil day were put before the
representatives of the producers, if it
could be delivered at the gulf
1t took but little time and in
vestigation for the leaders to see that
g, large, sure market for all their oil,
high and low grade, could be built up
in various parts of the United States
and in Europe, if they could secure rea-
sopable transportation. If the rail-
roads would do for them in other
states what the laws had forced them
to do in Kansas a certain market
both for crude and for the products of
the independent refineries now build
ing would be insured. To force such
rates from the railroads, at least from
the Santa Fe, the producers had a
powerful club.
Beginning of Suit.
early in March the state of Kan
sas on the relation of Charles D.
Schukers, attorney general of Chau-
tauqua county-one of the leading
counties in the oil belt-had brought
suit against the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe, a Kansas corporation, for
violating the states antitrust laws by
Joining a large number of other cor
porations, railroads and manufactur-
ing concerns, including the Standard
Oil company the various packers or
ganizatiOns, ETC., in an association for
enforcing noncompetitive freight and
The purpose and effect of this COM
bination, the petition claimed, was to
establish monopoly in the goods af-
fected, and the plaintiff prayed that the
Santa Fe be deprived of it's franchises
and privileges, and receiver be ap-
pointed to take charge of it's proper ty
and close up the concern. The suit was
begun while the excitement of the oil
war was still hot. It was conducted
with great bitterness, and the testimo-
ny brought out was exploited in the
most sensational manner by the press.
After great mass of testimony was
fh( cf4rz
what the Standard did i'll Kansas to
cause an outbreak were nearly all
brought out in the course of the ex-
aTntna tion) the case got into such a
snarl that the producers decided that it
would be well to suspend exarnina ton
for time until a digest of the matter
on hand could be made, and a clear,
safe course for pushing the case be de-
cided on. No quicker had the examina-
tion been suspended than the represen-
tatives of the Santa Fe sought the oil
men. The change that had come over
their spirit was highly instructive. A
meeker, more chastened body of rail-
road men is rarely seen. For once they
admitted themselves the servants of
the state, and all they asked was what
they could do to satisfy the oil men
so that they would withdraw the suits.
Several meetings were held to discuss
the situation. When the oil men re-
allied that the Santa Fe was evidently
sincere in its desire to compromise on
wants:
Text of Compromise.
Il. That the Santa Fe test Kansas
oil as a locomotive fuel and. If it is
found that it competes in quality and
cost with coal, that they equip their
Z engines in southeastern Kansas with
it.
20 That the freight on fuel oil be
put on the same basis as coal-that cars
for it's transportation be provided, and
that facilities for loading and unload
ing be provided.
g. That the schedule of rates ses-
tablished by Senator F7itzpatrick's max
imum rate bill be extended over their
line as far east as the Mississippi as
far west as Colorado, and south to the
gulf.
"A That a special agent be appoint
ed to devote his time to securing and
looking after oil freight.
These revolutionary demands must
have made the Santa F'e officials gasp.
To be sure they asked nothing but
what other comm ODDITIES get, what all
commodities should get but it has
been thirty years since oil has received
any such treatment on any railroad
tapping an oil field. But the situation
OF the Santa Fe was serious. The
revelations of its cynical law-breaking
IN the case of the packers, of the Colo
rado Fuel & Iron company, of the
Hutchinson Salt company, as well as
in the manipulation of oil freights
were before the public. They were
anxious to conciliate. and at once con-
ceded part of the producers de-
FOR INDIGESTION