Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-01
MENACE TO STANDARD
HEAD OF FOREIGN DEPARTMENT
TELLS OF PROGRESS,

Libby of the foreign department Of the
Standard Oil Company. in a formal state
ment to the public yesterday calls attention
to the policies of concentration and CONSOLE
dalton of their foreign rivals for the worlds
trade. These policies and business princi-
pies, he argues, are practically identical
with those followed by the Standard Oil
Company.
Mr.. Libby in his statement says that for
eign nations have fostered the development
and aggressiveness of their trading COM
panies. while in the United States the re-
verse is the case. Faced by powerful COM
petition abroad and attacked instead of be-
Ing encouraged at home. the Standard Oil
Company. Mr.. Libby says, is fighting single
handed for the supremacy of American Pc
troleum. He says:
eminent to disintegrate the corporate or
ganization and industrial equipment of the
Standard Oil Company and other compa-
mics. and thus to paralyze their great COM
merce at home and abroad, it is both in
teresting and pertinent to note the policy
and progress of their most formidable for
eign rivals.
International in Scope.
1.-THE desirability, the necessity, almost,
Of the concentration of brains and capital
has been recognized without exception in
all important petroleum-producing coun-
tries of the world, and not only have cor
porations and holding companies, on the
original lines of the Standard organization
(and other similar American organiza-
tions), been created, but several Of these
have become international in their scope.
''The Royal Dutch Company of The
Hague, and the Shell Transport and Trad
ing Company of London, two exceptionally
powerful and ably administered corpora
tons, have recently made public announce
ment of their amalgamation, one of the
kprincipal motives being to control the ex
tensive producing and refining petroleum
industry Of the Dutch West Indies, and
thus to further fortify their natural advan-
tages of cheap labor and geographical loca-
ton In competing for the vast petroleum
commerce of the Oriental countries con-
tanning more than two-thirds of the worlds
population. q
Germany Gives Aid.
I'm Germany holding company had re-
Gently been created under the auspices OF
the most powerful! banks in the empire, for
the purpose of dominating the sale of both
Russian and Roumanian products not only
in Germany itself, but in other European
markets. The said holding company unites
various important petroleum corporations
heretofore in competition.
I'm Great Britain efforts indicating ulti-
mate friction have been long under way
toward the fusion Of heretofore rival cor
porations, the aim being to dominate the
distribution of Russian and Roumanian
petroleum in Great Britain. Such fusions
are In no wise Incompatible with the
called Companies Acts of Great Britain,
which are apparently designed to encour-
age the utmost freedom of individual or
corporate action SO long as annual state
ments are made and annual taxes paid.
The essence of the English law appar-
emily is that everybody has a right to form
a combination, and that everybody else
has an equal right to combine against such
hipa This al TO Of
mercial action is assured to be the best
natural corrective of temporary abuses and
apparently crystal1iZes the wisdom Of the
most experienced commercial nation in his
tory.
Not only the extensive and prolific oil
fields of Burma, but also the privileges of
refining the output thereof, are under the
control of a single corporation owned in
Glasgow, which is protected and sustained
by the governments OF India and Burma.
This single corporation has free access to
the markets of India, with its population of
250,0O0,OOO, while the petroleum products of
other countries are subjected to an impor-
tant import duty
Helped Out in Russia.
1.-The distribution Of Illuminating oil in
the domestic markets of Russia is eff
fected almost exclusively by a combina-
ton of the great producing and refining
interests Of that country.
1.-The successful maintenance OF the SUI
premacy Of American petroleum in the
competitive markets abroad must carry
the penalty Of constant commercial bat
tie in the outcome Of which not only the
Standard Oil Company itself Is concerned,
but also the entire producing industry of
the United States; the great labor classes
and host Of avocations, directly or indi-
rectly dependent upon it's ramified opera
lions. The valuation of its exports consti-
tutes highly important factor in the adj
justment of the International trade bal
ances of the nation.
I'm the prosecution of it's aggressive in
dustrial policy the Standard Oil Company
believes itself to be fairly entitled to the
encouragement that other governments
are giving to similar business interests.
For these reasons it would seem as IL it
was most important to the general business
interests of the country as we'll as it's oil
interests, that the organization of the
Standard on Company, which enables it to
pursue and enlarge the worlds markets for
American products should be sustained
rather than crippled or destroyed, for it is
my deliberate conviction that the volume
of American petroleum distributed in the
worlds markets would have been i'm
measurably less under less comprehen-
sive equipment and policy than that of the
Standard Oil Company"