The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-08-20

Il fir .. IaAA = lOI
-ua Of us who can remember as
IA. aack as 1875 fail to understand
VII here is SO much popular COM
H motion because the standard Oil Com
i many has been detected in the exaction
~ D~rcferential rates from the rail-
The most cursory examination of the
test gl1uy AXE before the congress
4 -lonaJ investigation during the early
/ set altie3 of h last century-thar
4 sou 4ds better than to give the exact
i aa.e-will convince anybody that suf-
Acnat evidence was developed at that
Il ;urI.sitlon to show that h entire
N ~ ess of the South or Southern I'M
p~r.veInent Company, progenitor of the
sUadard company, was builded upon
4 the essential tto IT. principle of dis
cr.nination in railroad rates.
~le feet was frankly admitted, by a
score Of witnesses, that the New York
Central and the Pennsylvania rail-
roads had conceded to this service
CurpOTation q special rate for carrying
its oil to the The word re
BATE may not have been mentioned,
bc. atlse it is doubtful if the Southern
movement Company went through
the formaEty Of paying the regular
tariff and of accepting the return of
d PORTION of the money as a gratutty.
II only paid what was agreed upon.
.sEl1 va oAAS Ooc1oN AAhAAA III NAIo
ell regions in those days. His name
was William Warner. and he staked
his life and financial existence upon
the work of bringing out the facts.
He had able coadiutors II the Tack
urothers, but they lacked Warmers
staying powers and were soon driven
To the wall, Warner never let up. The
corporation that he was fighting mock
20 him. His ~refineries were "myster-
iously'' liable to explosions. His oil
I'LL not :. fire in uo0Ct nnunnO1Intahla
v~avs. But he survived. One of the
Tack brothers is dwelling quietly in
West Eighty-second street, having
saved enough to live upon, and he is
don regarding those days in Which a
dO-nOthing general government fall
ed to safeguard the Interest of the in
dlvidual citizen from corporate greed.
What he and his brother, Augustus,
know about the initial velocity of the
rockefeller combination would fill
several volumes larger than those of
Miss Ida Tarben.
The point 1 desire to make. how
ever, is that in those days nobody was
Thomas A. Scott, Commodore" Van
derbilt and Others were shown to
have cOnnived with the South I'M
nrovement Company to land the oil of
that corporation at the seaboard for
n less price tina any other producer
" 4 ANAAttcA ASS
sell for home consumption or ship
meut abroad at prices that shut out all
other producers from home or foreign
markets. Did the 'do-nothing Presi-
dents" interfere? Apparently they
never even read the testimony: or,
readtnr its pages of da1nning evidence,
j shrugged their shoulders and mar
4 veled at the prosperity" of the ooun-
ny. A thousand small dealers were
going TO destruction, but commerce
was having an upbuiIding and the
country WAS getting rich!
Great, glorious, presagement Of the
future!
There is only one difference between
that there is a man in the White
House who has the COURAGE to do
things" Never was a President In Of
fee who more completely dominated
Congress than Ulysses S. Grant. l
served IN Washington as a newspaper
correspondent durin~ TART Of his Sec
sQnd term, and T speak with confidence
when I assert that he could nave pro-
cured the passage of bills much strong
er than either the Sherman or the
tEIkins acts. A motion Of his finger
would have commanded abject sub
Eervtenee. On the contrary, much of
the vitality OF precious time Of that
second term was given to protecting
t~friends"--h characteristic of the dog
ged, persistent, aggressive nature that
was highly extolled by his friends and
admirers, and not properly
by his opponents. The Independent
Republican revolt, eliminating at
Cincinnati in May. 1872. ever grappled
with the alarming rise of the monopo-
listic class, although The Tribune. It's
organ, had been the first, under John
HAYS inspiration Gas 1 personally
.aff1rm). to expose the outrageous con
duct at the small group of Cleveland
imonopohsts.
Then 1T was the trusts had their
conception.
In passing we are constrained to say
that there is one feature about the
Chicago platform of 1889 that i'm
.mortalizes it! Therein was the first
announcement of financial manOpo-
lies.
h Standard Oil Company was
founded upon an idea. 1t hadn't CAPT.
tai, to any large mount Oil been
discovered and shipped six years be-
fore the great thought" a mental
genesis; but it was an idea that meant
hundreds of millions! Its cardinal
principle-no doubt a writer of that
time would have used the word "vir-
- that a few men were to
do business for the rest of the world.
This looked like a good thing" for
The two or three ~audacious men who
lontrolled the two great trunk lines
rha entered the oil regions. They
We're after money in those days when
money talked" 1t spoke a language
If its own, Many an American who
fought himself patriotic, manly,
honest, was beguiled by the new
t.ngue and wished to share in the
-rOsperity."
The political estate. 50 called with
}dnesS, the professional heroes. so
..eepted at their own valuation. and
TIE grasping army contractors were
every one of them engaged in a wild
rush to get rich. To the political class
heir position as lawmakers meant
only opportunity; the military class
oemanded a national gratitude for
n- md that hadn't spilled; the COM
.-rrcial nabobs weren't as rich as
4 would have been If the Civil
".r had been prolonged to the ex-
E"'.l Of their ardent wishes These
.litions embodied their mentality.
.e and all. With q President who
Ia protect his friends whether he
cngulfed in a Whiskey ring scan
Or a government land theft, there
sut any thought Of safeguarding
interests of any branch of trade
]" hiCh these men were not benefited.
.'erein, to my spare mind, is found
%" transcendent genius of John D.
lr Eefeller. He got secretly to work