The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-08-21
NEARING THE End.
Great Oil Trust menaced by In
ternal Dissentions.
Richest Man in the World, Scents
Trouble and Only Rogers Pursuas-
sion Keeps Him in the Line.

sion Keeps Him in the Line.
Is the Standard Oil company, the
peek of all monopolistic corporations,
and the worlds greatest example of
concentrated wealth, threatened
with internal disruption? Runors
that will not down have been sneak
ing around New York city's financial
center, whispering that as far back
as six monts ago, John D. Rockefel-
Ter, the head Of the great combine,
the man whose keen intuition has
made him the greatest man in the
world in point Of wealth, saw signs
of the impending storm, and wanted
to sell his Standard Oil holdings, and
retire bag and baggage. A few
weeks later. these same rumors have
it. James Stillman, the president Of
the National City bank, Of New
York, the bank of the Standard Oil
company, therefore the richest in
the world. also desired to quit the
company. With the decisions of these
two men threatening the great trust
with disruption, nothing but the iron
will and personal pleadings Of Henry
H. Rogers, vice president, and the
actual head Of the company, kept
the two dissatisfied men in line.
Rockefeller. who possesses the gift
of foresight to a degree almost uncan-
ny, saw last winter that the day OF
the downfall of Standard Oil was at
hand. The law, which for IS years
had lain dormant while the Oil trust
made ridiculous the Federal and
State statutes enacted to control the
giant concern, had at last turned on
the corporation, and with all the
more vigor because Of its long rest
The man who did the main part Of
the planning which resulted in the
perfection Of this money making ma
chine, which for years piled up in
comprehensive fortunes, had q Wis
ion Of the strenuous times ahead for
his great industrial pet and wanted
to quit cold, and, but for the plead
ings of Rogers, he would have done
so.
Meanwhile Rogers, who has active
charge Of the defense being made
against the attack Of the Federal gov.
ernment, having succeeded in getting
the ruling of Judge Lands in regard
to the S29, 100000 fine carried to the
Supreme court Of the United States
is busy repairing the damage done
by the latest shafts Of Herbert Knox
Smith, commissioner of corporations
Smith, after showing how the prices
of oil vary in different parts Of this
country, purely at the will of the
men who control the necessary com
modify, and without reference tc
cost of production, freight charges
etc., makes the astounding assertion
that the Oil trust can convey crude
oil and it's products to Europe in thei,
own steamships and still sell it cheap
er than it is sold in America.
Instead of making its price lis
lower than that Of Independent com
panies as its monopoly enabled it t.
do" declares Smith, thus retaining
a great proportion of the busines
by fair and legitimate means, tht
tStandard is an example Of precisely
the opposite. 1t is a combination
which maintains substantial mono
poly, not by superiority of service
and by charging reasonable prices
but by manifestly unfair methods O:
destroying competition; combina
ton which then uses the power un
fairly gained to Cypress the public
end en~:"h itself by wholly eXtortion
ate pr.-es.
1t has raised prices instead o!
owering them at the very time whe1
tae rust, by reason Of its position
ana advantages, could produce {
great deal cheaper than independent
concerns. But instead Of this it charg
es more than smaller concerns woulc
have done if the Standard woulc
have allowed them the chance"