The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-04-25
GREAT OIL INQUIRY ENDED
HadIey Gets Long-Sought Evidence
Of a Gigantic Combine.
ARCHBOLD STANDARDS HEAD

Outcome of Investigation in New York
City a Feather in the Cap of the
Young Missouri OflciaI-Rockefeller
Esc~apes-Trust's President Agreed to
Testif, in Private-oner Refused.
New York City. Attorney General
Hadley, of Missouri, brought his pro-
ceedings against the Standard Oil
Company to a close with the examina-
ton Of H. NJ. Tilford, supposed to be
The best posted nan in the Standard
on the corporations affairs in the West
and Middle West. He announced that
he would no longer bother John D.
Rockefeller with subpoena servers,
having obtained the evidence he wants,
and that Mr.. Rockefeller could come
and 60 as he pleased. He said:
II feel that, I have accomplished
everything I came to New York for and
something more. Not only have L
forced the admission that the stock
ownership of the Waters-Pierce Oil
Company. the Republic Oil Company
and the Standard Oil Company, of III
diana, is vested in the Standard Oil
Company, Of New Jersey, but the testi-
mony has shown that the respondent
companies have been managed by big
Standard Oil officials located at 2G
Broadway. The hearing will be re-
sumed at st. Louis and among the wit
,orcnn 10 1n avop,innH will I'm ~ ~
Pierce, Of the Waters-Pierce Oil Com.
pany.
Then when the hearings are ended,
I will apply to the courts, and of
course will rest with them the conten-
ton that I have made that the respond
ent companies have been doing bust
ness in the State of Missouri in viola
ton of the antitrust laws of our State.
81 want to say that what made 1t
possible for me to secure the evidence
I was successful in bringing out was
due to the decisions Of the United
States Supreme Court and the Supreme
Court of Missouri"
The disclosures brought out through
MI. Hadley's q~restionings Of witnesses
have been the reigning sensation since
the closing of the insurance inquiry.
and the youthful Attorney-Genera OF
Missouri is one of the most talked of
men in the country. His success in the
face of what at first appeared to be
unsurmountable odds has excited the
admiration of the legal fraternity all
over the United States, and to-day he is
hailed s q champion of the peoples
cause.
One cf the most important facts dis
closed by the inquiry has been that
John D. Archbold is the real head of
the Standard Oil Company, and not
John D. Rockefeller. The latter has
been in practical retirement for the last
ten years, and has not been actively
engaged in any business. His failure
to subpoena Mr.. Rockefeller to appear
at the inquiry was the only failure
which Mr.. Hadley met with, and with
nj he received an invitation from the
president of the Standard to meet him
in private, an offer which he refused.
The offer was made while MI. Arch
bold was on the stand.
That the Standard Oil Company is
Oh the verge Of q reorganization OF It's
business method; was clearly indicated
by testimony produced at the hearing
and a statement made by n of its
leading counsel. The long established
policy of secrecy seems to have been
almost entirely abandoned.
1t seems reasonably certain that
hereafter no attempt will be made to
operate through subsidiary companies
which purport to be independent, but
are, in fact, owned outright or con-
trolled by the Standard.