Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-11-19
tlcpce IN New York to develop the
business here and to save expenses.
when did the next change take
THE NEW FIRM.

Il
3 gagged III The refining OF oil. yhici
4 was sold in this country and abroad.
Il '.Whnt WAS The next changer?
u think that three years later. IN
i 1870, the Standard oil company OF
4 Ohio, organized with n capital Of
! $1,000, ooo. and We enlisted much 'l
capital for the company. The first
! field for the production Of crude oil
4 WIS Nenango county. in the western
i part OF Pennsylvania.' said Mi
4 Rpci;efelcr.
/ Hc looked To OHIO to obtain the
/ cruGc oil. and the refining plants Of
1 the company were at Cleveland. Pitts
| York.
',What had been tho course Of the
/ development OF the industry ut that
l timc?'
There had been rapid development
| in the cleansing and refining of oil.
The business Of refining was profit
able, and as a result, he said. many
5roilnerie.t We're built. People turned
! to this business Of refining oil who
IsMerc not necessarily the best trained
| business men. The STANDARD Oil conf
pany put UP, all the retincries possl-
| BILE
..Was Mr.. Andrews practical re-
| fner?''
rrllat was the reason he was given
a part in the business said Mr.
lgRccbefcller. HE was a practical re-
finer of oil. and IT gave him an excel
lent opportunity TO associate himself
in the business i'll this way.
BEST DISTRIBUTING POINT.
In answer to a question Mr. Rookie
Teller said that Cleveland was the
best distributing point to obtain the
domestic trade. Its advantage was
that theS had q long haul to the
! seahn;..t' for the export trade.
What was the comparative SIZE
of your refinery to others at tlaat
time IN 1ST9?"
II believe it was the largest in the
country ut that time
THE company was capitalized at
s1.O0O.000. Was that considered
large capitalization" asked Mr.. Mill
Yes" replied Mr.. Rockefeller. 1T
was considered very large. We
thought ii was very large, as we
started In 1850 with $1,000.
Mr. Rockefeller said they made
many improvements In the business
One thing they did was to manufacture
their own barrels at saving Of one.
half. Hc said the savings on the bar
rels represented a large saving to the
company and represented one of the
innovations developed In the company.
~
to time we were anabled to produce at
prices lower than that which we pre-.
sviously paid as our capital increased,
said Mr. Rockefeller.
Let me ask you about the house
which you established here said Mr.
AIilburn.
'Yes, that was an advantage That
gave us an opportunity to learn OF the
foreign markets and the export trade.
Il, Of o.
ing capital as our business developed.
and in New York we We're enabled to
secure larger sums of money at lower
rates than In the west. We were al
ways able to obtain large sums of
money and l am thankful to say we
always had good credit. We always
keptSuur covenants and paid our bills
Our ability to secure large loans was
OF great advantage to us Thus we
extended our facilities with New York
bankers with whom we kept our de-
posts and we got our money at the
cheapest rates in the cheapest money
market III the world"
BRANCHING. OUT.
Through the acquaintance made by
William Rockefeller with wealthy men
in New York connections were formed
enabling the company to borrow large
business, the witness stated. Some of
those who aided him in obtaining funds
We're Amzi stone and Benjamin Brew
ster New York, he said, was the larg-
est exporting point at that time and is
today.
Hard times came upon the oil trade
early in the seventies. The business
was much overdone. because retiner-
les had been erected so rapidly that the
4 ,,r, lacS
a recess of five minutes was taken to
ventilate the room and meanwhile
MI. Rockefeller went over and talked
with the newspaper men. He suggested
that they ought to have a room five
times as large. but Mr.. Milburn said
there would be five times as many peo-
pie II they did; that the only way
would be to charge admission.
"Oh, no." said Mr.. Rockefeller mot
if they are as nice rs the people here.
We want to Introduce all the econo-
mics, you know.
Did you have negotiations after the
organization of the Standard Oil COM
pany}o Ohio with other interests, look
ing to their purchase" Mr. Rockefel-
Ter was asked after the recess
ABSORBING COMPETITORS.
yes. in the last part of 1871. We
consunlnatad negotiations for the then
firm of Clark, Payne & CO. This com
pany was avery considerable refining
company. next to lis in size. The mem
bers of the firm We're Colonel Oliver
Payne. James FL. Clark and John
Huntington.
t"The next one we bought, il am
right, was the Alexander. Schafield &
Co. They were next In Importance in
the BUSINESS
ibid these negotiations result in con-
trolling Clark, Payne & Coz
Yes
Were there other negotiations
Yes, there We're other refining con
Germs having lesser Importance which
we purchased, don't remember the
names. 1 should say that / had nego-
tiationa with six or eight concerns.
These concerns We're all In Cleveland
/ could not say definitely how many
We're purchased. There might have been
q dozen. more or less. beginning with
Clark. Payne & Co, They We're not all
at one time. Some We're in 1871 and
early in 1872 and some in the last of
1870
How did these negotiations arise?''
In the natural way" said Mr. |
Rockefeller. We We're all friends and |
enjoyed prosperity together We found |
that changed conditions We're lessen
ing the chances of profits. We We're
in obtaining large capital !
at that lime and many capitalists
feared TO risk money in oil re-
filming. There We're many schemes ioat-
ed on property of little value Owing
To the dissatisfaction with such con-
cerlis II was hard to obtain money /
that ] visited J. Fl. Wade in
cleveland and he told me politely and