The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-11-19

over before 1t was placed on board
of other oil companies in Ohio, MIR.
Rockefeller repied ''None, what
ever" He continued: For myself
can say that the methods used al
ways we're absolutely fair
"Did you have negotiations after
the organization of the Standard Oil
Go. of Ohio with other interests look
ing to their purchaser Mr.. Rookie
Teller was asked.
Yes. in the last part OF 1871. We
consmmated negotiations for the
then firm of Clark, Payne & Co. This
company was very considerable re-
fining company, next to us in size.
The members were Col. oliver H.
Payne, James II. clark and John
Huntington. The next one that we
bought, If | am right, was the Alex
ander, Scofield G. Co. They we're next
in Importance in the business"
EIDid these negotiations result in
controlling Clark, Payne & Coz"
yes"
"lWere there other negotlations?"
Eyes, Thee were other refining
concerns having lesser Importance
which we purchased ! don't remem-
ber the names. | should say that
had negotiations with six or eight
concerns. These concerns were all in
Cleveland. could not say definitely
how many were purchased. There
might have been a dozen, more or
less, beginning with Clark, Payne &
Co. They were not all at one time.
Some were In 1871 and early in 1879
and some in the last of 1870"
'EHow did these negotiations arlse?"
"In the natural way said MIR.
Rockefeller. "We were all friends
ship.
Mr.. Rockefeller said that further
to save expenses the company found
it profitable to lighter It's own oil
from the cars TO the warehouses In
this city He added
1--WE made these improvements as
fas as we could provide capital for
them. Other companies had to pay
the expense of lightering which with
the commissions for selling oil and
the warehouse charge, made their
charges heavier than ours"
Hard times. came upon the oil trade
early In the 70s. The business was
much overdone because refineries had
been erected so rapidly that the profit
was much lessened. ia.
"a recess Of five minutes was then
taken to ventblate the room and
meanwhile Mr.. Rockefeller went over
and talked with the newspaper men.
He suggested that they ought to have
a room five times as large, but Mr..
hIillburn said there would be FIVE
times as many people IL they did.
that the only way would be to charge
admission.
"Oh, no" said Mr.. Rockefeller,
mot If they are as nice as the people
here. We want to introduce all the
economies, you know"
When asked If coercive measures
were employed in acquiring the stock
and enjoyed our prosperity together
We recognized that changing condi-
lions were lessening tine chances OF
profits. We were unsuccessful In OBJ
tanning large capital az that time and
many capitalists feared to risk their
money in oil refining There were
many schemes foated on property of
little value. Owing 10 the dissatis-
factlon with such concessions, 1t was
hard to obtain money. 4 remember
tnat visited j. H, Wade in cleve-
land and he told me politely and
kindly that he would not invest any
money in the oil business. +"
Mr. Rockefeller said that to cope
with changing conditions IL was necLi
essary to obtain capital and purchase
the Cleveland companies, which. the
witness said, enabled the Standard To
borrow large sums of money by hav-
ing associated with 1t many of its
recognized friends.
I'VE realized" said Mfr. Rookie
feller, Ftha bthe larger company de-
creased the cost of production and inL
creased the volume of business. The