The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1906-05-23
A Disgraceful Record.
New Orleans States.

The investigation of the Standard
! Oil Company now being conducted by
the Interstate Commerce Commission
| shows that the whole history of the
corporation to be an unbroken rec
ord of wholesale fraud, bribery and
swindling by which means have been
piled up the Rockefeller millions.
Mr.. haywood Maxon, a former en-
plove of the Oil Trust and now an in
dependent dealer, proved the other
day to be a very interesting witness
who was able to throw a flood of light
on the dark and crooked methods of
the great monopoly. Upon cross ex-
animation he admitted that he had a
large number of letters written by
officers of the trust to its agents and
when asked by Mr.. Rockefeller's at
tOrney how he got them he replied,
sin the same way that for years | got
information for the Standard Oil
Company He frankly admitted that
having been trained in the school of
the Oil Trust he was an expert in its
methods. The letters which MaXOn
has in his possession will be of great
use to the government in its legal
proceedings. and he has allowed
Commissioner Garfield in behalf of
the government to take copies of
them.
In his testimony Maxon also stated
that the treasurer of the Standard Oil
Trust furnished him with passes over
all the railroads in his territory
which he used when travelling on the
compary's business, hence with its
agents carried free by the railroads,
and its oil hauled at rates far lower
than those its rivals could obtain it
is not surprising that the fortune of
the piOus Mr.. Rockefeller is esti-
mated at a billion dollars. Any bust
ness is bound to prosper amazingly
that gets rebates not only on its own
shipments, but on the shipments of its
competitors as we'll. In addition the
Oil Trust is protected by retaliatory
duties on all foreign oils, and by the
drawback it receives on its tin cans.
All of which of cOurse helps to swell
the Rockefeller millions, and in this
way the Oil Trust has grown to such
a power in the country that it does
not hesitate to talk back defiantly to
the national government, no doubt be-
lieving itself to be even more power
full than the government. In its COM
ments on MaxOn's testimony the In
dianapolis News says:
"But this man Maxon showed that
the Standard was able TO protect it.
self, law or no law, and even against
the law. Through subsidiary COM
panies organized for the purpose, it
fought the Independents by reducing
prices in a certain territory, all the
while pretending that it was not the
Standard that did it. The State oil
iloPCSUolSs VIC L lulOl IlCos o1O uCt.
except in rare instances, inspect bar
rels of oil. On the other hand, many
of them left their stencils in the hands
of the Standard 'Over night"-which
of course, mean that the Standard
! did its W inspection. 1t is by such
methods that the Standard millions
were made-thOse millions which are
now being thrown as a ransom to
churches and colleges"
The Oil Trust has long been unpopu-
lar, but the investigation now in
progress is showing it to be intoler-
ably disreputable, for it stands
branded before the world as organ
lied plumber and corruption. 1t is
even possible hat Chancellor Day, of
Syracuse University, may come to
see that men who have grown enor-
mously rich by almost every form of
dishonesty are not quite SO ''hOnor-
able'' as he has declared them to be.
Never in the history of the country
has there been a corporation guilty
of more foul practices than the Stand
ard Oil Company, and these prac-
tees have been the foundation upon
which that ''true Christian gentle
man," Mr.. John d. Rockefeller, has
erected the vast fortune he now owns.