The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-04-08
BRIEF TELLS HOW STANDARD
HAS VIOLATED THE LAW

HAS VIOLATED THE LAW
st. Louis. Mo-, April THE govern
ment's brief in the case of the United
States against the Standard Oil
Company OF New Jersey, sets forth the
history of the company from its incep-
ton to the present time. The declara-
ton Is made that the testimony shows
that the various defendants have from
the first pursued a system OF unfair
competition against their competitors,
whereby the Independent companies
selling and marketing petroleum have
either been driven GU OF business or
their business so restricted that the
Standard Oil company has practically
controlled the prices, and monopolized
the in the products Of pc
troleum In the United States.
This system, 1t Is contended, a
taken the form of price cutting in
various localities, while keeping UP
high prices or raising them still higher
in other localities where no competi-
ton exists; of paying rebates to custo-
mers as a part of their system of price
cutting; of obtaining secret informa-
ton as to competitive business, large
ly through bribing railway employees,
n using their secret information to
procure the countermanding OF orders
of independent producers, and to facil-
itate the price cutting policy: of the
use of socalled independent companies,
that is, companies held out by the
Standard Oil company as independent
which are engaged in price cutting,
while the Standard Oil company main
tains the price through its we'll known
companies and other abusive Compel
tive methods against the competitors.
The Standard Oil company, the brief
alleges, is particularly able to carry
on this predatory competition for the
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at central markets or through rdin-
airy channels, as most other ordinary
manufacturers. 1t markets its products
to the retailer in every village and
community In the United States and
1t sells directly to the consumers. 1t
does from IS to 80 per cent of the
business of the United States, leaving
about 10 to Is per cent for all it's com
petitors. 1t is also held that the tes-
timony taken in the Standard Oil pros
ecutions shows hat that company
through a company in which 1t owns
a majority Of the stock (the Galens
Signal OIL company also controls
ton of railroads throughout the United
States, and that it sells to most rail-
roads at enormous profits. This is evil
denced by the net earnings of the
company, which in 1906 were about
112 per cent IN the capital stock ac-
tualiy paid in and about 105 per cent
on a liberal valuation Of the capital
used. 1t is also shown by the furth-
err fact that the prices to these
railroads are substantially double the
prices charged to a few favored lines,
notably the Pennsylvania. For instance,
the brief says, the New York Central
railroad for 10 years has paid about
100 per cent per gallon more than the
Pennsylvania. 1t is also stated that
kha Cknn1n-I 10 M a.
has made contracts whereby 1t has
either marketed a part or all of the
product of h independent refineries
or has limited the output Of the
anne
Its Enormous Earnings.
One of the evidences Of the monop-
oily of the defendants, 1t is charged, Is
it's enormous earnings. These earn
ings are summarized as follows: The
Standard Oil trust and the Standard
Oil company on an investment Of &c.,
1906, $S38, 7S3, 1888. Adding the esti-
mated profits OF 1907 and 1908, we have
substantially, the brief states, a billion
dollars earned by this company In q
years with an original investment of
about $69, O00, 900.
Further on the brief says:
1T has usually been claimed for
large corporations in this that
they have increased business and de-
creased the cost to the consumer, but
In the case of the Standard Oil COM
pany 1t has during the 10 or 10 years
actually increased the price to the re-
taller, and this a good deal more than
the prices of other products through
out the country, although the price of
its raw material and cost OF manu-
facture and sale during these years has
increased very little, II any"
The brief, which occupies nearly 200
printed pages, covers with much detail
the history of the company from it's
original organization to the present
time, and asserts that its methods have
been in gross violation of law, and
asks the court in view of the circum-
stances of the case. to annul the con-
tracts under which the Standard Oil
company operates and dissolve the COR
poration.
The brief is signed by George w.
Wickersham, attorney general; yra=k
3. Kellogg. Charles B. Morrison, Cor
denio A. Severance. j. Harwood
Graves, special assistants to the at
torney general.
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