The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-19
KANSAS OIL WAR.
Alleged Violations of Law-PIan to
 Curb the Standard.

Alleged Violations of Law-PIan to
 Curb the Standard. Raymonds Washington Special to The
 Chicago Tribune.
 When young MT Rockefeller sent his extraordinary telegrams to his friends in the United States Senate, protest ing against the creation of the Bureau of Corporations, he must have had a prophetic vision of what was coming to the Standard oil Company when the people really understood their rights and their powers.
 The happenings in Kansas resulted in swift action by the House of Rep resentatives as a result of which the Standard Oil Company may be brought to book even sooner than people had expected.
 There was little joker in the law creating the Bureau of Corporations as part of the Department of Commerce and Labor. MT. Rockefeller did not know it, but in every investigation of corporations engaged in interstate com merce the President and House of Rep resentatives are absolutely independ- ent of the Senate.
 Makes Inquiry Under Law.
 The Secretary of Commerce and La bor is obliged by law to make investi- gation whenever requested to do so by AuG 11OuSc UT Dy tue EESSiuSHIt anu IL was under this almost forgotten pro- vision of the law that a resolution swiftly passed in the House without even reference to committee requiring Secretary Metcalf to investigate the oil situation in the Kansas field, and de- termine whether the Standard oil Com pany or any other corporations have been violating the law.
 When the Standard oil Company un- dertook to boycott and blacklist the oil producers of Kansas 1t evidently did not realize the storm it would raise. The situation in Kansas has been subject to constant attention here from the outset and report seems to indicate that the Standard oil Company has act ed in manner which Is even more outrageous than its customary meth ods.
 People have been driven from their homes. Private property has been de- stroyed, business in oil towns has come , to standstill. and there are said to | be, without exaggeration, thousands of people who have lost their all as re- suit of the attempt of this greedy mo- nopOly to capture the oil fields for its own use and profit.
 l Representative Philip P. Campbell of Pittsburg, Kas., took the bull by the 1 horns, and after consultation with | Speaker Cannon. who was entirely lagreeable, secured recognition for the introduction of a resolution under Sec tion of the law creating the Depart ment of Commerce ant Labor which de- clares that the Secretary shall also from time to time make such special investigations and reports as he may be required to do by the President ol by either House of Congress or whict l he himself may deem necessary or urg. ent."
 House In Entire Sympathy.
 The House was in entire sympathy with the member from Kansas, and his resolution was passed by unanimous consent without the foImality of being referred to a committee. It does mol have to be submitted to the Senate or approved by the President. The Secretary of Commerce and Labor is immediately required. therefore. to in vestigate the oil question under the terms of the resolution, which reads as follows:
 Resolved. That the Secretary oi Commerce and Labor is requested tc investigate the cause or causes of tht low price of crude oil, or petroleum. ir the United States, and especially in the Kansas field, and the unusually low margins between the price of crude oil or petroleum and the selling price oi refined oil and its by-products, and whether said conditions have resulted