Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-10-03
STANDARD OIL CASE
EXAMINER OF ALLEGED TRUST
FINDS MANY OBSTACLES.
AND STOCK BOOK MISSING
Counsel Kellogg Asks Standard Off
Gals to Produce Books which
Cannot Be Found.


New York-Two books showing the
stock transactions by which the Stand,
ard Oil Co. of New Jersey took over
control of nineteen subsidiary con-
Germs which had been allied with the
old Ohio trust have disappeared from
the vaults of 26 Broadway. They are
the ledger and stock book kept by
Transfer Clerk B%ensinger between
1892 and 1899. These are the books
which Government Counsel Kellogg
asked the Standard officials to pro-
duce before Examiner Ferris at New
York. Clerk Bensinger testified hat
he left these books in the vault in
1900, when the work of liquidation
was over. Later Counsel Milburn for
the company reported that the books
had disappeared and no official of the
company could give any information
concerning them or any idea as to
where they might be. Mr.. Kellogg an.
nounced that he would have the books
If they were in existence, and If not
he would know what had happened
to them and why. In explaining how
the transfer was made. Mr.. Bensinger
said that holders of trust certificates
would present these at his office and
have them Cancelled, receiving instead
a corresponding number of shares IN
the New Jersey company.
Ar .
MonopoIized Foreign Trade.
Light was thrown on the trusts
dealings with the so-called independ-
ent oil companies when 1t was shown
how by a system Of agreements the
Independents were obliged to buy their
crude oil from the Standard, it being
stipulated that no refined oil should
be exported to Europe except through
the trust. Should any company vio-
late this agreement, their supply of
crude oil would be cut off and they
would have to close their re-
6neries. These facts were brought
out by the testimony of Sec
rotary Benson. of the Tidewater
Pipe Line Co. and vice president of
the Underwater Oil Co., which controls
the Tidewater Pipe Line. The Stand
ard owns nearly one.third of the stock
Of these concerns. Mr.. Bensinger told
how in 1883 the Standard tried to get
control of the Tidewater, and the
books of his company containing the
records of those transactions were torn
open in court. They disclosed the
minutes of a meeting Of the Standard
Dill faction in the Tidewater compa-
MES at Titusville, Pa, at which an
effort w2s made to gain control of the
then competitor Of the Rockefeller sys-
tenn. At a meeting of the real mana
gers on the following day these min
utes had been declared void and or.
1ered sealed for all times.
Obstacles for Pipe Line Builder.
Benjamin F. Warren of Brooklyn,
The civil engineer who laid out the
original pipe line from Bradford to the
sea, told of obstacles thrown in his
path by interests which he could not
Identify, but which came through rail
roads which were at that time trans
porting Standard Oil products.
A later line of inquiry by the prose.
,utor brought out the facts that the
trust employed a device for apparent
compliance with the common carrier
provision Of the rate law by publish.
ing tariffs for the use of it's pipe lines
terminating at pumping stations,
where there could be no possible
market or outlet except into the tanks
Of the Standard Oil Co., thus effectual.
ly barring any use of the pipe lines
by rival concerns. The fact was also
disclosed that the trust had in opera.
ton a pipeline from New Jersey across
Manhattan Island to a Long Island re.
fnery, contrary to the claims of the
trust that the pipeline companies I'M
der their control were not interstate
and hence not subject to the rate law,
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