The Topeka state journal., 1905-08-23

IT6lSll Oh lu6 pIOQuCL Ol
ed unchanged. That is, the Standard
was able to ship gas-oil, a product Of
crude, from NeodeSha at the old weight
of 6.4 pounds a gallon.
OF course, Mr.. Knapp and his agents
protested loudly. They pointed out the
anomaly-the injustice They did not
hesitate to call it manipulation. The
railroad agents were evidently ashamed
of the tricky business. They admitted
it an arbitrary Observation-Disclosures
it was not general, even on their own
roads. They did succeed even in getting
it reversed but for only very short
time, when back it went and the KAN
sas agents, goaded by Mr. Knapp to
still further protest were told by their
superior officers that they were tired of
the correspondence, that the rate was
fixed and it was unnecessary to discuss
the matter For eleven months Mr.
Knapp had to fulfill his contracts at
this disadvantage. Independence at an
expense of 81. so a car may mean bank
ruptcy. Whether it did or did not Mr..
Knapp felt it was too costly, and, IN
May. 1903, he turned over his crude OIL
to the Standard; and henceforth that
concern filled the contracts of the Oma-
ha and Kansas City gas works. Thus
the very small breeze of competition
which was freshening the air of Cha
mute was stilIedi Mr.. Knapp's twenty
cars were side-tracked, and in March
last, 1906 they still stood idle at Cha
mute.
What had the Standard OH company
to do with this manipulation? One who
knows the history of the Standard Oil
company will not ask that questlon.
That is why it's history is useful today!
What happened to Mr. Knapp happened
to scores of Pennsylvania refners ana
shippers back in the '70's and SOS, and
left hundreds of tank cars sidetracked
as his were.
How the Railroads Helped.
In August, 1904, a schedule was put
out raising the rates on crude OIL ana /
all its products on all the ralIToads
passing through the Kansas f1elds.
Thus, while it had cost ten cents
hundred pounds to ship to Kansas City
from independence, Chanute, Neode-
sha, Humboldt, ETC.. it now cost seven
teen cents; and while 1t had cost nIteen cen
cents per hundred pounds from the
same points to St. Louis. 1t now cost
TWENTY-FIVE cents. 1t was absolutely
prohibitive. For instance, director
of the Moran Gas & Crude Oil com
pany testified in March last that his
concern which had been shipping oil
in it's own tank cars to Kansas city
firm was obliged to discontinue bust
ness at once under the new schedule
and to shut down its wells. Every
where this was true. 1t is easy to un-
derstand how inevitable this was, for,
counting a car load as $4,000 pounds,
the advance to Kansas City was actual
ly $3.50.
Now, this raise in oil freight was not
made in connection with general
readjustment and advance OF rates. II
was made alone. 1t was not made to
bring oil rates up to or somewhere IN
harmony with freight on other COM
modities. 1t put it out Of all proper
ton to other freights as a matter OF
fact. For instance. while 1t cost $50
a car to ship a, car of fruit (per1shable
goods) from Chanute to Kansas City,
$50 for a car of wheat. $40 for corn,
$28 for cattle, $66 for machinery. it
cost $94.35 for oil, the least valuable
of ALL 1t also made the the rates on
oil from Kansas oil shipping points all
out of proportion to the rates on oil
from Pennsylvania oil shipping points.
For instance, from the common points,
Bradford, Titusville, Oil City, to st.
Louis, distances OF 1858. 11O ana loS
miles respectively, the rate is twenty
six and one-half cents; from the Kan
sas points to St Louis, points whose
distances vary from 354 to 437 miles,
the rate was twenty-five cents, only
four and one-hah cents less. 1t cost
only four and one-half cents more to
ship from the Pennsylvania points to
New Orleans than from the Kansas
points to New Orleans; and while oil
freight to Chicago from Kansas was
from thirty-seven to forty-eight cents
it was only nineteen and one-haf from
Pennsylvania, the distance being about
the same.
This advance in rates was made just
at the time the Standard Oi company
finished it's pipe line to Kansas City;
and it was freely charged that it was
the result of a pooling of oil freight be
tween the Santa Fe and the STANDARD
line. At recent Kansas investigation
the examiner presented the following
letter:
THE reason the Santa Fe and the
Katy railroads raised rates on oil after
the pipe line was completed was because
the Standards companies arranged
with them to do SO, by agreeing to give
them a per centum upon every barrel or
oil that was run through thelr pipe nnes
on condition the railroads would in
f'ease the freight rate on oil to a pro-
hibitive rate, so that all oil would be
forced through the pipe line. Now the
railroads have no oil, but get about ten
cents per barrel for all oil going through
the pipe lines.
Same Old Game.
No testimony was presented to show
how much or how little truth there
was in this letter, but the agreement
1t charges is nothing more or less than
what we know existed from 1884 on,
for several years at least between the
Standard Oil company and the Penn
sylvania railroad. In 1884, when the
seaboard pipe line was first completed,
the Standard Oil company made a
contract with the railroad that 26 per
cent of all oil shipped eastward from
the Pennsylvania oil regions should
belong to the road whether it trans
ported it or not. If it did not carry it,
the Standard was to pay it a fixed sum
per barrel as compensation. In return
the railroad was to put up the freight
rates on oil. and was to allow the pipe
line to go under its track. The case
seems parallel to the Kansas case. That
is, there seems every reason to believe
that the Santa Fe and the Standard
We're working together to keep up Gil
freights, and so to check the few in
dependent oil movements on foot and
prevent the birth of others. 1t was the
honored community of interests. The
Standard crowd was largely interested
In the Santa Fe road. A few months
later it put one of its most prominent
members, Mr.. H. H. Rogers on the
board of directors of that road-Mr.
John d. Rockefeller and Mr.. William
ROCkefeller were direcforS nf the Ms