The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-08-29
OIL IS SHAME OF
THIS DISTRICT
Elections in venango Region of
Pennsylvania Are Ruled by
Standard Oil Co.

OIL CITY, Pa, Aug. when Col.
r. l.. Drake, in 1869. bored the first
productive well along Oil creek, he
not only tapped the "oil sand" but he
also tapped the secret source OF a
moral fniasma hat was event.ai, 10
corrupt the whole district there
abouis. For yetr ionm has become at
once the story and Tie shame of Ven
ango and its surrounding counties. IL
has made 4 rich and thriving district
of barren and icfer,iie country. 1t
has made many r,illionaires. II has
also given the spectacle OF district
in which IL is practically impossible
TO get more than a scattering vote for
anybody or anything without the free
use OF money.
why exclaims an indignant but
helpless and all but hopeless insur-
gent, the people here simply won't
take the trouble to vote unless they
are paid for 1t. They have been paid
for voting ever since they can remem-
Der. They expect it,, A bank note
and carriage ride to the polls have
come to be taken as a matter of
course, as the accepted thing in cleo
ton day manners"
The Story of Oil.
Venango-co. has been producing
petroleum for just half a century.
During these so years since Col.
brakes drill first tapped the oil pro-
ducing rock. oil has been all-powerful
here. Nothing could be more natural
than this. Oil was the source OF the
common prosperity. Oil was the basis
of the fortunes of the wealthy, and
oil has paid the wages of the day la
borer. Without oil this land OF scrub
timber and dry hills would have been
but land Of poor hillsmen-mere
trappers and coon hunters. With oil
1t is a land of rich men. Few cities
of their class can boast the million
aires and mansions that Franklin and
Oil City cen. Materially, oil has been
the making of the district.
And by that curious and sinister
demoralizing effect that the material
may sometimes exert on the spiritual,
oil has at the same time been the
ruin of the district morally. Not that
the district produces more than its
share of people who are immoral in
the conventionally shocking" way.
On the contrary, 1t is a fairly decent
district in that regard. Its citizens
are eminently respectable. The Hon.
Jos. Sibley, for example, is trustee
in a Baptist church. But the people
of the district have lost their civic
sense Oil has blinded them.
So now there is nothing surprising
to the average citizen of the Mercer
Venango-W Elk Forest district in
the charge that Joe Sibley. spent much
more than his vouched for $42,500 I'm
getting himself nominated for con-
gress in the recent primary campaign.
Is 1t not generally accepted as mat
ter of fact that he once spent upward
of 100000 in such campaign? What
more natural, they say, than that he
should spend twice $4,000 now?
Plays Crude Political Game.
The hand OF Standard Oil pays a
rather crude game of politics here.
Not that it cannot play the fine game,
but the fine game has never been
needed here. There has never been
need of a bipartisan alliance such as
has been found expedient in other
places to make sure that the game
will be won, no matter who loses.
There hasn't even been occasion to
build up a permanent political
machine.
There is no need. for a real political
machine. The Standard Oil Co., with
its lubricating oil plants, and other