Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-02-20
KANSAS LEGISLATURE PASSES
MEASURE.
Plant to Be Located at Peru, and
Convict Labor USed-COnareSS
Directs Bureau of Commerce
and Labor TO Investigate Oil
Situation In That State.

1opehd, hau., feD. lO.-A Dill pro-
viding for state oil refinery passed
the Kansas house of representatives
yesterday. Gov. Hoch viii sign the
bill at once. Under its provisions a
refinery will be located at Peru, Kan
Another penitentiary will be built
there to provide convict labor for the
refinery. An appropriation of $41O,-
600 is made for building and maintain
ing the refinery and penitentiary.
This ends one of the most bitter
fights ever made before the legislature.
The Standard Oil Company and the
railroads have maintained strong lob
bies here vainly trying to defeat the
bill. The Kansas Oil Producers asso-
citation has sent the following telegram
to President Roosevelt
Aid of Government Asked.
"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 Uni
ted States for help in the undertaking
of the legislature of the state to protect
the oil industry of the state from the
oppression of the Standard Oil trust.
because the legislature presumes
to exercise a natural function of gov
'ernment by legislating for the welfare
and protection of industries within the
borders of the stat1Against the oppres-
sion Of all mohopolies, and because the
legislature proposes to try the expert.
ment Of public oil refinery as means
of preserving and making profitable
the oil industry, the general manager
of the Standard Oil Company has de-
clared boycott upon Kansas oil, and
one of his subordinates has insulted
our people by expressing in the public
prints groundless fear that they will
destroy the company's property.
Would Cancel Lease.
1--WE further represent to you that a
menace to the crude oil market is a
continued ownership by the Standard
Oil Company of what is known as the
-ervation. This reservation includes
one and one half million acres of land,
which contains reservoir of petrole-
um so rich that if the Standard Oil
company should own and develop it,
that company will have supply of oil
that will make it Independent of pri-
vate production, not only in the West,
but all over the United States.
"The lease is nominally held by
straw men,, but it really is in the
grip of the Standard Oil Company and
the oil producers appeal to the presi-
dent, the secretary of the interior and
the congress to refuse the application
now pending for its extension. 1t is
too much for the government to give
to the Standard Oil Company or it's
agents. an organization which is al
ready so powerful that it presumes to
be greater than the people and the gov
eminent.
THE Kansas oil field has been de-
veloped on the promise of fair play and
good prices by the Standard Oil Com
pany but now the supply is sufficient
for the needs of the company, it, as it
has done in other fields, has reduced
thep price below profit, and the men
who have invested their money will
lose it, and the field will languish, I'M
less the government, state and nation
al, refuses to confer upon the company
additional rights and franchises, and
turns in the other direction and legis-
lates for the people awhile"
The telegram is signed by the presi-
dent and secretary of the association.
1t is likely that the validity of the
oil refinery bill will be tested in the
state supreme court before it goes into
effect. The bill calls for the issuance
of bonds for the amount necessary to
build the refinery. State Auditor Wells,
it is announced will refuse to register
the bonds called for in the bill until
the supreme court says they are valid.