Connecticut western news., 1907-08-08
0|L FINE $29,24O,OOO
Extreme Penalty Imposed Upon
 Rockefeller Monopoly.
STANDARDS BOAST IS FALSE

Report to President Roosevelt by Com
 missioner of Corporations Shows That
 Trust Makes Use of Underhand Meth
 ods-Net Earnings $79o,ooo,o0o.
 Washington, Aug. 7.-Following hard on the smashing blow delivered to the Standard Oil company at Chicago, when Judge Landis in the United States district court fined the oil mo- nopoly $29, ,24O,OOO for the accept ance of illegal rebates, the government made public a crushing array of fig ures gathered by Herbert Knox Smith, the commissioner of corporations. These figures show:
 Tirst.-That the vast Rockefeller monopoly since 1882 has paid out $552,- GOO OOO-more than half a billion-in dividends, all the time piling up, in addition, surplus which as long ago as 1896 had aggregated nearly ESQ., 100000 and has since grown to un- known proportions.
 Second.-That the oft repeated boast of the Standard that 1t had reduced the price of oil and thus had been of bene- fit to the consumer is false now and al- ways has been false.
 The present report of Commissioner Smith is supplemental to his two pre- vious reports, which dealt chiefly with the methods used by the Standard, the dominant factor in the industry, to se- cure and maintain that domination and described the character and extent of it's control. The present report sets forth the results of such methods and their effect on the consumer and on the profits of the Standard Oil con- pany.
 P How Margin of Profit Grew.
 '"The Standard" says Commissioner Smith, ''has consistently used it's pow CT to raise the price of oil during the last ten years, not only absolutely, but also relatively to the cost of crude oil"
 The commissioner shows the profits on Illuminating oil to have advanced per gallon as follows: September, 1897, to December, 1899, 3-1O cents; from 1900 to 1902, cents; from 1903 to June, 1905, 6 6-1O cents.
 This was an increase in profit of 3-1O cents per gallon in eight years.
 ''When it is remembered" says the commissioner, "that from seyen-tenths of cent to a cent per gallon consti- tutes a good profit the meaning of an increase of 1 3-1O cents is evident"
 A much greater increase in profits, he shows, has taken place in the case of the Standards byproducts, such as gas oline, Iubricating oil and paraffin wax. Averaging them up into Illuminating oil the net increase in the profit per gallon from 1897 to June, 1905, was 1 8-1O cents
 Enormous Profits.
 The tremendous importance of these increases in the margins is appreciat- ed only after considering the enormous output of the Standard. For instance, an increase in margin of cents gal Ion, such as took place from 1898 to 1904, meant even after allowing an increase of half a cent a gallon in cost of production and marketing, an in- crease in total profits of about $21,- 100000.
 While the dividends from 1882 to 1906 were $552, 100000, the net earn ings, the commissioner says, were much more, at least $79O, 100000 These enormous profits were based on an in- vestment worth at the time of its original acquisition not over $75,OO0,- 900 and not over $147, 100000 in 1896. From 1903 to 1906 the average net yearly earnings were about 6S per cent.
 'These figures" says Commissioner Smith, demonstrate the falsity of the historic claim of the Standard Oil con- pany that by reason of its extraordi- nary efficiency it has brought prices to point lower than would have been reached had business remained under normal competitive conditions and in the hands of a number of comparative ly smaller concerns.