The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-14
THEY ARE BOLD.
Fight on Standard eGives Oil
Men Courage.
Move to Build Independent Re-
finery at Chanute.
BIG CROWD COMING.
Southern Kansas Men to Be Here
in Force.
Producers Committee IssuesAd-
dress to People.


for an independent refinery at Chanute,
the production has been contracted for
and that ground will be broken just as
soon as the oil bills pass the legislature
and are signed by the governor. The
refinery will cost $780, 600 and have a
daily capacity of 500 barrels crude oil.
Most of the stock was taken in Illi-
nois.
It is announced from CoffeyvilIe that
the Prairie Oil & Gas company (Stand-
ard Oil company is buying 400 barrels
of oil a day there. At Chanute and
Humboldt the company still refuses to
run the tanks
At the headquarters of the Producers
association here hundreds of letters are
coming in from every section announce
ing that the people are writing to the
members of the legislature demanding
the passage of the bills recommended
by the association. A big crowd is go
ing from here to Topeka today to help
out the campaign for the bills. 1t is
expected that delegation from every
town in the oil country will be on hand
to work.
The Kansas Oil Producers associa-
tion has issued an open letter to the
people of Kansas. The advisory COM
nittee framed the document and sent
it out from Chahute on Tuesday night.
1t charges the Standard Oil company
with a record of broken promises,
duplicity and treachery. The appeal is
to the public and contains a statement
of the actual situation It follows:
ITO the People of Kansas:
The statement of one John OBrien,
who presumes to speak for the Stan
dard Oil company in Kansas at Kansas
City yesterday that the only people who
are opposing the Standards methods of
extortion and oppression in Kansas are
a q in r7fc
an explanation at our hands. When the
development of the Kansas field was
first attempted two years ago the orig
inaI developers wrote to the Standard
what to do and they We're
informed by the Prairie oil &
Gas company which is the Kansas
name for the Standard, that the Stan
dard would take care of them and If
they drilled in the field that the Stan
dard would provide the facilities for
handling the oil. At that time the Stan
dard encouraged production. The sup
erintendent fthe producing department
of the Standard, o. A Evans, located
at Neodesha, wrote letters asking peo-
pie to invest their money and assuring
them that thew would find a market
for their product
Later on last year when we antici-
pated that there would be a surplus we
wrote the STANDARD and asked them
what to do and Mr.. Young the preSi-
dent of the Prairie Oil & Gas company,
wrote us that it was all right, that we
could not produce oil faster than they
could take care of it. We told him
that if it was necessary the producers
would provide the storage for the sur
plus product ana he told us it was not
necessary to provide any storage, that
they would look after that.
There have been assurances to mem
bers of this associa ton by officers of
the Standard that the price of oil would
be as good as two dollars a barrel be-
of 1off
are signed by officers of the Prairie Oil
& Gas company.
I'VE wrote to them, when the inde-
pendent refiners of Pennsylvania were
making inquiries as to what they could
get in to the field and the Standard
assured US. that they would do more
for us than the, Independents could pos
sibIy do and that was to take care of
our oil. :.
I'VE have been the victims of the
promises of the Standard from the be-
ginning of the development Of the field.
1--WE have believed the Standard was
sincere in it's assurances.
We have believed that they would
take care of the production of the field
I'VE have given over to them every
means for storing, transportation and
marketing of OIL Had We believed for
a moment that they did not mean
what they said, had we believed for a
moment that they were at the very
time they were giving US assurances
of their friendship plotting for the
fall of the field we would long ago
have made such arrangements as
would have made the Standard oc-
cupy anything but first place IN the
oil industry of this state.
1.-The whole record of the Standard
Oil company in Kansas has been
record of broken promises, of treach-
cry to every interest which is making
for the material prosperity of the
state, of duplicity. deception ana
wrong. There is not a single instance
where they have kept faith with any
body.
where they have even kept faith with
the people they claim to be their
friends.
of oppression, of favoritism, of dis
criTninatiOn and of lawbreaking.
"They say they are buying oil in
Kansas now when every producer of
oil in the state who is not on the pay
roll knows that the statement is lie.
seThey say that they have not boy
cotted the state when every thinking
man in the state knows that state
ssThey say they are the greatest
developers of the oil industry in the
state when every man, woman and
child in the state knows that they
are the buzzards of the oil business,
who came in after other people had
developed the business and had put
their money into it.
ssIn this fight against the Standard
Oil company we appeal to that record
to show that they have done nothing
in this state that they have not made
a profit out of, that they have done
nothing in this state that the pro
done nothing in this state which did
not Weld them tenfold the amount OF
tn cir investment
''We ask the Judgment OF a dis