Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1905-09-13


roads be not kept by the roads, but
paid over to them They also asked
to be allowed to examine weekly the
shipping books of the transportation
lines that they might know how
much and to whom their competitors
shipped. 1t was a strong scheme
even for the strong stomachs of the
men to whom it was presented.
Old Commodore Vanderbilt told
Billy" as he called his son, to let
it alone. Even Tom Scott baked
at it from the first.
Miss Tarbell follows with the tale
of the foundation of the Southern
Improvement company, of which
Rockefeller was the dictator.
They we're a persuasive body
those South Improvement advocates
and they had great arguments. Sign
these contracts and we shall control
the business; then you will have but
one party to deal with. Think of
the ease in handling your freight2 ?
Sign these contracts and we will
divide the trade, thus saving you
the wear and tear of securing your
quoto-preventing rate war. Think
of the prohts!"
And the contracts were signed
secretly, of course. And when they
were signed what did Mr.. Rocke-
feller do2 He swooped down on a
great industry in his home town with
the proof that henceforth he was
not only to have rates fully 100 per
cent cheaper than his competitors,
but he was to have the extra 100
per cent they paid! And he told
them they had better sell-at his
price; 2I out of 26 did, and by
March, 1872, young Mr.. Rookie
feller was practictically the only oil
refner in Cleveland, Ohio, where
three months before there had been
26.
The country was soon up in arms.
The rebate system was made illegal
by law and the scheme called con-
spiracy.
The episode of the South I'm.
provement company may probably
be called the turning point in the
character of John ID. Rockefeller
the point at which he faced, as
probably every man does some day,
the necessity of a conscious life
choice between the thing which is
good and that which is bad-and he
chose, knowingly (to believe it was
not knowingly is to believe he was
not intelligent the thing which was
bad.
From that time on Miss Tarbell
speaks of Rockefeller as a law
breaker.
From the first concealment was
the very key to the game. Mr..
Rockefeller's skill in concealing the
truth was mastery. His is not a
frank nature. He was a silent boy
"a silent young man. With years
the habit of silence became the
habit of concealment. 1t was not
long alter the Standard Oil COM
pany was founded before it was
said in Cleveland that its Offices
were the most difficult in the town
to enter, Mr.. Rockefeller the most
difficult man to see.
The success he had had in Cleve-
land, in 1879, in putting an end to
competition by creating panic, had
strengthened into a conviction his
instinct that this sort of practice
was effective. To all who approach
ed him in the early years to consult
about conditions, he took a hopeless
view. There is no hope for any
of us, but the weakest must go first, "
he told a hard pressed visitor one
day in 1873, year when he made
about s3H per cent on his capital.
And If the unhappy victim of the
condition he was fighting to perpet-
uate did not yield to his depressing
news and sell, he had a still more