The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1907-05-24
WEEK IN THE WORLD.
Great Events and Movements Which
Are Making History.

In his report on the petroleum lhuus
try Herbert Knox Smith, commission
or of corporations, makes charges
against the Standard Oil company un-
der the following heads:
Failure to comply with the common
carrier requirements of the rate bill
Refusal to deliver crude oil to com
peting companies at desired points.
Refusal to sell crude oil to com
peting companies.
Failure to comply with the new fed
eral pipe line law.
Absolute refusal to file tariffs and to
transport for others.
Absolute refusal to name or fix rates
to desired points to other shippers.
Fixing unreasonable regulations as
to the quantity of shipment.
Changing the method of collecting
statistics so as to render the work of
the bureau of corporations almost
valueless,
Killing competitors by litigation and
pipeline monopoly.
Raising pipeline rates six times.
Directing commercial efficiency to
cripple all competitors.
In closing, Mr.. Smith sums up the
matter in the following paragraph:
''In brief, the history and present
operation of these Standard interests
shows throughout the past 80 years a
substantial monopolization of the pc
troleum industry of the country, de
liberate destruction of competition, and
consequent control of that industry
by less than a dozen men, who have
rcaped enormous profits therefrom.
The commercial efficiency of the Stand
ard, while very great, has been con
sistently directed, not at reducing
prices, and thus maintaining its pre-
dominant position through superior ser
vice, but rather at crippling existing
rivals and preventing the rise of new
ones by veXatious and oppressive at
tacks upon them, and by securing for
itself most unfair and widereaching
determinations in transportation facill-
ties and rates, both by railroad and by
pipe line, while refusing such facilities
so far as possible to all competitors. "
Edwin H. Conger former minister to
China, died at his home in Pasadena,
Cal, Saturday. Few men have played
more important part than he in the
upbuilding of the nation S prestige
abroad. A graduate of Lombard uni
versity in 1862 Mr.. Conger served
through the civil war and then be-
gan the study of law, going to Iowa
after his admission to the bar. He
served two terms as state treasurer,
was elected in 1884 to the 49th con
gress and was twice reelected. He
was appointed minister of the United
States to Brazil in October, 1890, by
President Harrison. He was one of
the most acceptable ENJOYS to the
Brazilian government that has ever
been accredited from this country, and
was himself much pleased with his life
and duties there. He remained until
1898, and was again, four years later,
given the same mission by President
Mckinley, from which he was trans
ferred in 1898 to China. In the terrible
days of the Boxer outbreaks in 1900,
the devoted American minister, his
wife and daughter, and a niece, Miss
Mary Conger Pierce, were among the
20 Americans penned up in the British
embassy in Pekin, awaiting the doom
that appeared certain at the hands of
the Infatuated Chinese. Rumors that
they, too, had fallen victims to the
Boxers shocked the country from time
to time, but they were unfounded, al
though the sufferings of the party
knew no limit. If Mr.. Conger were
for a time blamed for signing the
agreement drafted by the foreign min
listers, it did not cause him to lose the
confidence of the president, as his APP
pointment to the Mexican legation
showed His tenure of office in Mex
leo was brief, as failing health forced
him to tender his resignation in Au
gust, 1905.
The presidents speech in IndianapO-
lis on Memorial day may be counted on
to mark the beginning of a general re-
Of int dnrnouJ for Il.