The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-10
His Arrest Scheme to Force
Company Into ReceiVership.
lie WILL FIGHT BACK.
Says That He Has Done No
hrOng.
Only Offense Becoming a Com
petitOr Of Standard Oil.

statement:
1T is true that have been indicted
by the grand jury of the United
States court at Topeka It seems that
a man cannot fight the Standard Oil
| company in Kansas without paying the
penalty for his action 1t seems that
a peculiar distinction is made in the
case of the man who fights the Stand
ard Oil company and the common,
ordinary every day criminal. The man
who fights the Standard OIL company
is dignffied with rapid transit code of
procedure which dignifies his crime
The grand jury. assemblies in the
morning but SO feverish is the trust to
get even that II cannot wait till night
before the. Indictments found and the
man arrested. OF eour. I am not
lawyer but PLAIN ordinary everyday
kansan who got my education on a
farm but my observation has been
that with ordinary criminals, with the
men who rob the mails and the men
who steal things and men who kill
their fellowmen there is nothing like
the haste which was displayed
in the grand jury room at Topeka
Ordinarily in the course of procedure
it takes a week for a grand jury TO
deliberate and find an Indictment But
in my case it was altogether different
There must be haste. There could be
no delay. 1t must be done in hurry.
And it was done in a hurry.
The truth Of the whole matter IS
that as long as the Uncle Sam Oil Co.
was selling stock and its refineries
pipe lines. distributing stations and
other appurtenanceS and parapher-
MALTA for the conduct of oil business
were in an embryo state the emissar-
les and employees of the Standard Oil
Co. in Kansas contented themselves
with yelling fraud. They did not do
anything more serious because they
were not hurt But the very minute
when the Uncle Sam Co. got in the
market an active competitor of the
Standard Oil Co., the very minute
when the Standard Oil Co began to
lose business in Lawrence, Kansas
City, CherryvaIe, Olathe Winfield.
Wellington, Anthony, Wichita, Otta-
wa, Topeka, Leavenworth, Atchison,
Pittsburg, Galena, Minneapolis, Be
lott. Garden City, and all the other
places in Kansas to the number of
more than thirty where the Uncle Sam
oil Co. has distributing stations it be-
gan to get busy and this Indictment is
the result It is their answer to com
petition 1t IS their answer to the saw
ing of nearly five million dollars
yearly to the people 1t is the way
the Standard Oil Co. always answers.
They never have fought fair and they
never will 1t is as impossible for
them to fight fairly as it is for water
to run uphill.
The Standard Oil Co. has been
A0A II HAS DGCIl the DEPART
ment it takes the most pride in-the
sales department 1t has been badly
hurt and it is being badly hurt. The
Uncle Sam Oil Co. more than all other
influences in Kansas has opened the
eyes OF the people to the rapacity to
the greed, to the crimes of the great
est trust the world has ever known
We have day in and day out called at
tentfon to their abuses of all methods
OF competition. considered Iegitin1H re-
among decent men. we have done ey-
erything We could TO awaken the con-
science of the people to the enormfty
OF their crimes and this is the penalty
I am suffering.
Never Got a Dollar Dishonesty.
When it comes down to a question
the Uncle Sam will show for themselves
II nave ever got a dollar which was
obtained dishonesty I am willing TO 90
to jail know that when an fnyesti-
gation IS MADE by impartial people. by
people who have no personal interest in
the wrecking of the Uncle Sam OIL
company and the salvage of the same
that it Will be found that 1 did not re-
ceive All that was due me. that 1 re-
peatedly borrowed morey and placed
1t in the treasury of the COMPANY for
the benefit of aII-the- stockholders. that
| repeatedly placed my personal credit
behind the obligations of the company
and all the stockholders got the benefit
OF 1t, that have given all of my time
and talents to the DEVELOPMENT of the
Uncle Sam Oil company and to max
Ing the Standard Oil company be decent
in Kansas and other western states
have never obtained a dollar in my ca
reer in the oil business that was not
for the purpose of building up the great
est Independent oil company in the
west / have never received a dollar
that was Lot applied for that purpose.
If that be obtaining money under false
pretenses, if that be swindling. if that
be fraudulent use of the mails, If that
be the use Of the mails for the purpose
of rromoting a fraudulent scheme then
the Standard Oil company is entitled
to the credit which comes from that
charge. I have been told more than a
thousand times that when the Uncle
Sam Oil company grew to just such an
extent that It W uld be crushed. I have
been told for two years that the Stand
ard Oil company was just playing with
me and whenever I got big enough to
hurt them that they would show me
thing or two
He Had Been Told.
Last Saturday evening L was in
formed by one Of the most prominent |
politicians in Kansas that I was GER
tafnly going to be indicted by the grand |
jury which met at Topeka Monday,
and that ii was useless for me to try to
stop it; that everything was SO fixed |
that it could not be stopped 1 was
told that if I would consent to the ap-
DO1nLmGnL Oh q IEI0HQly receiver that I
everything might be fixed up all right |
am the officer of the nine thousand /
stockholders of the Uncle Sam Oil COM
pany scattered through every state in |
the Union / am their servant I am
not absolute, and / told this politician |
that 1 would fight to the last ditch to
protect the interests of these stoekhold- /
ers who had invested their money at
my solicitation That is my position /
now. I have committed no crime IN the |
eyes of God or man
This whole proposition is scheme |