Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-13

the Standard Oil Company of New Jer-
sey, the parent corporation, or the
particular subsidiary thru which IL
does business in the states affected, to
GUST the trust and prevent 1t from
hereafter doing business in those
states.
Suits of this kind are pending In
Texas, Minnesota. Missouri Tennessee,
Ohio and Mississippi In addition to
the custer suits penalties are sought to
be inflicted by some of the states. Tex
as is suing to collect fine OF S9'ooo,-
600, and Mississippi, to collect penal
ties amounting to S4SO,000.
Liable to $126,52o,0oo Fine.
In the federal suits the total num-
Der of counts of all the indictments is
1926 Were the company to be found
guilty in every case and the maximum
fine imposed, as was recently done by
Judge Lands, the total amount which
the company would be called upon to
pay would be $126, 900. This, added
to the $29,240,000 fine inflicted week
ago would swell the total to $1o5. So
900, irrespective of the penalties winch
may be inflicted as a result of the
various suits brought by different
states.
A fine of $29.24o,0Oo would not be
death blow to the Standard Oil Com
pany. In six months it's profits amount
to that sum- But if the company We're
called upon to pay into the treasury of
the United States a total of $155,o00000
that would be most serious matter
s., -, dor n
men who compose the company.
The Standard Oil has a surplus re-
serve fund which runs into enormous
figures. Conservative estimates place
it at $500, 100000, and less conservative
estimates place it as high as $500.00O,-
900. What it actually Is is a secret
which has been guarded with eXtraor-
binary care, the knowledge being con-
fined to not more than five or six men
Between 1882 and 1906 the Standard
Oil paid out in dividends, according to
recent official compilation by the
United States government, the enor-
nous sum of s551 .922,9 04.50. For sew
eral years the policy of the company
has been to distribute about SO per
cent of its actual earnings in dividends
and add the other 40 per cent to it's
surplus funds.
The actual earnings or profits for the
full period between 1882 and 1906 have
never been disclosed. 1t is known,
however, that the total profits from
1882 to 1896 were s244O26,4S5. In that
period the dividend distributions
amounted to s164,49O,46o, leaving $7s,-
536.025 for the surplus fund.
Trusts Enormous Earnings.
The period of the Standards greatest
earnings has been since 1896. In the ten
years it's dividend distributions amount
to $3S7,432,446. For only three of those
years, 1903, 1904 and 1905, are its prof
it's known. In 1903 it distributed s42.-
S77,516 in dividends, and in that year
its profits were $S1,300.000. In 1904 it
distributed $35,4O1,7Ss in dividends and
it's profits were S61.500,000. In 1905 it
distributed in dividends sS9,335,S2O and
its profits We're $57,000,000.
For the three years its profits
amounted to $780,, 100000, while its div
idend distributions were s117614,624,
leaving in that period alone $S2.1S5,
376 to be added to the surplus, an av-
erage of $27,395,125 year.
IL lue surplus duultlOuS dNSIdSCh
that amount for ten years, it would
make total of s27S,951,25O, which add
ed to the surplus fund up to 1896,
would make a grand total of $685. 49,
275
With a surplus reserve fund of more
than $S50,0OO000, the Standard could
pay fines amounting to s155,OO0,0o0,
and still be highly solvent and with a
surplus larger than that of any other
corporation in the country, but it's
prestige as the dominant power in rail-
roading and in irrdustrialism would be
seriously crippled
The Standard has always played the
financial game with "the strong arm
that is with the stupendous money
power behind 1.-THE power to crush
individuals, cripple banking institu-
tions. bankrupt Industrial enterprises
and make trouble for railroads
1t was recognition of this power that
made practically every financier and
corporation that crossed the path of
the Standard bow to it's will without
question and accept its dictum with
out any wish for combat.
Dissolution Suit Alarms Them.
The suits to inflict fines and penal
ties brought by the United States
government and the various states
while severe enough in themselves, do
not menace the life of the corporation,
but there is one suit which does, and
that, it is said, is causing the men
behind the company more real concern
than all the others put together
This is the suit brought by the
United States government last No
vember in the United States circuit
court at st. Louis for the dissolution
Of the Standard Oil Company. All of
the other actions are subsidiary to this
one. If it succeeds, the Standard Oil
Company will cease to exist and the
seventy-one constituent corporations
of which it is composed. will be COM
PEELED to do business separately and
as competitive concerns
All of the preliminaries in this ac-
ton have been disposed of, and the
taking of testimony will begin in this
city in the postoffice building on Sep
TENDER 8, next. Franklin Ferris, of
st. Louis, has been appointed special
examiner. to come here and take the
testimony. Frank B. Kellogg, the
governments special attorney in the
case, will conduct the examination of
witnesses, who will include John D.
Rockefeller, H. H. Rogers, John D.
Archbold, William Rockefeller and all
of the other men regarded as leaders
in the affairs of the corporation