The copper era., 1905-02-23
KANSAS TO BUCK THE
 STANDARD OIL CO.
An Appeal to the President and Con.
 eress for Assistance.

 4 bill providing for state oil re-
 fnery passed the Kansas house of re- presentaries last week, and was inn mediately signed by the governor. Under it's provisions d refinery will be located at Peru. Kansas. and an- other penitentiary will be built there to furnish convict labor for the re- finery.
 An appropriation of S41O, 900 is made for the building and maintaining the refinery and penitentiary. This ends one of the most bitter fights ever made in the Kansas legislature. The Standard Oil company and the rail- roads have each maintained strong lobbies at Topeka. vainly trying to defeat the bill.
 The Kansas Oil Producers associa- tion sent the following telegram to President Roosevelt:
 ''TO Theodore Roosevelt, Washington:
 "The undersigned. representing the oil producers of the state of Kansas and speaking for the intelligent and industrious people of the state and voicing the spirit of American fair play everywhere, appeal to you and through your secretary of the interior and by you to the congress of the United States for help in the under taking of the legislature of the state to protect the oil industry of the state from the oppression of the Standard oil trust.
 ''Becausc the legislature presumed to exercise natural function of gov ernment by legislating for the wei fare and protection of industries within the borders of the state against the oppression of all mo- nopolies; and because the legislature proposes to try the experiment of a public oil refinery as q means of pre- serving and making profitable the oil industry. the general manager of the Standard oil company has de- clared d boycott upon Kansas oil, and one of his subordinates has insulted our people by expressing in the pub lie prints I groundleSs fear that they will destroy the company's property.
 'We further arepresent to you that d menace to the crude oil market is the continued ownership by the Stand ard oil company of what is known as the Foster lease of the Osage Indian reservation. This reservation in l., of land, which contains a reservoir of petroleum so rich that if the Standard oil company should own and develop it, that company will have d pendent of private production. not only in the west but all over the United States. The lease is nomi- nally held by ''straw men, but it really is ill the grip of the Standard oil company and the producers appeal to the president, the secretary of the interior and the congress to refuse the application now pending for its government to give to the Standard oil company or its agents, an organ ization which is already so powerful that it presumes to be greater than the people and the government. The Kansas oil field has been developed on the promise of fair play and good prices by the Standard oil company. but now that the supply is sufficient for the needs of the company. it, as it has done in other fields, has re- duced the price below a profit, and the men who have invested their money will lose it and the field will unless the government. state and nation refuses to confer upon the company additional rights and franchises and turns in the other direction and legislates for the peo- pie awhile.
 Respectfully submitted.
 "OIL PRODUCERS ASSN"