The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-05

same in 1897 and 1898 as in 1896.
 On the other hand, in 1903 the prof
 its were S81 LOGO, or an increase
 of more than $47,000,000 over 1896
 and probably nearly as great an in
 crease over 1897 and 1898, The year 1903, as just shown, represents the maximum point reached in do-
 mestic prices. It was also very near ly the maximum point in export
 prices The profits in 1904 were
 $61,500,000 or an increase over 1896 of the excess of the profits of 1904
 over those of 1896 must have been In the domestic trade, since the
 prices in the foreign trade had been very sharply reduced during 1904. Even in 1905, when the foreign prices had been still further reduced and were, as compared with the prices of crude, at the lowest level known for many years the profits of the Standard oil company were $57,- GOO, 000 or nearly $23,000,000 more than in 1896. The greater part of this increase in profits was due to higher prices, and not to increased volume of business.
 This enormous increase in the profits of the Standard in recent years represents an addition to prof it's which already in 1897 and 1898
 were exorbitant The profits of 1896 had represented return of 23.1 per cent. on the net value of the assets
 of the Standard oil company, and the ratio of profits to value of assets
 was probably fully as great in 1897 and 1893. tTA
 Evidence from the earlier and the less complete statistics regarding the prices in the domestic trade shows, in fact, that the margin between the price of crude oil and the combined prices of it's several products was quite as high in 1897 and 1898 as it had been in general for several years previous and, in fact, that it had probably increased considerably The years 1893 and 1894 appear to have
 been those of the lowest margins in the domestic trade, yet even then the Standard made very good profits on
 the basis of it's total assets---11.7 per cent. in 1893 and 11.5 per cent. in 1894.
 1t Is clear, therefore, that the Standard Oil company has taken ad- vantage of It's monopoly power to inc crease prices enormously during the
 past few years.
 Profits of the Standard Oil Company. The profits of the Standard oil company are enormous, both in abso- lute amount and in proportion to the | investment of the company As far
 as can be determined from the avail able evidence, moreover, the profits during recent years have been much l higher in relation to investment than during earlier years, as might be ex- | pected from the advance in the mar gin between the prices of finished pe- troleum products and prices of crude oil.
 The Standard Oil company has nev- CT made public reports of it's business other than it's rates of dividends Pre- else evidence regarding the profits of l the Standard from 1882 to 1896 were. however, presented in a private law suit some time ago. In the testimony l before Judge Landis in the federal court at Chicago in July, 1907, also, MT, Pratt. secretary of the Standard Oil company, admitted the amount of l the profits, in round numbers, for 1903, 1904 and 1905.
 The total amount of dividends paid | by the Standard from 1882 to 1906
 was $551. 1922, 904.50 or an annual av-
 craze of s22,077, 900. The average amount of trust certificates or stock
 outstanding during the period was l $91, 434,574. The dividends thus av- l eraged 24.15 per cent. per year
 The dividends however, were much less than the total earnings. The l company has invested large propor- ton of it's profits in the extension of ] it's business and in other ways. For the years 1882 to 1896 the profits in excess of dividends amounted to $79,- 536, ,025.14, or about 4S per cent. of the amount of dividends. Informa- i tion for later years is available only 1 for 1903, 1904 and 1905. During
 these years the profits of the Stand- 1 ard oil company were, in round numbers, $199, ,S00,000, and the divi- dends were Sl17614,624. The profits
 thus exceeded the dividends, on the 1 average, by 70 per cent Adding the profits in excess of dividends, for the years for which definite information 1 is available only, to the amount of | dividends for the whole period gives
 total of about $714,000,0 ,000. How
 much the earnings during the seven ! other years exceeded the dividends : can only be guessed. Standard representative stated in 1899 that from 1896 to 1899 tn ,eeXcess of prof. ! it's over dividends was less than be- fore. It seems substantially certain, from the general situation as to prices, that the excess of profits from 1897 to 1902 and for 1906 was not ] less than S75,000,000 (the dividends
 being about S270,000.000 In that
 case the aggregate profits of the Standard from 1882 to 1906 would be
 about 90,OO0, 000 They may have l been considerably more.
 | These enormous profits have been based on an investment worth, at the 1 time of it's original acquisition, not
 more than S75,000.000. In 1882, when the Standard oil trust was or-