Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-12
PETROLEUM FIGHT
WILL STIR WORLD
Standard Oils Declaration Prom
ises FierCest Struggle in
History of Commerce
RETAIL PRICES ARE FALLING
Resources of Forces Arrayed in
Contest Will Reach Near
Billion Dollars
RETAIL PRICES ARE FALLING

LONDON, Dec. 1.-THE war in the
petroleum trade which has been openly
declared by Standard Oil is likely to
prove one of the dercest struggles in
commercial history. The battlefield
covers practically the whole civilized
world, while the financial resources of
the forces arrayed against each other
probably exceed the enormous total of
$75O,OOO,O 900.
Already the retail prices of both
kerosene and petrol in this country are
falling rapidly, the severity of the
struggle being also indicated by the
heavy drop which has taken place in
the price of oil shares on the stock
exchange.
AS their greatest foe the Standard
Oil trust has opposed to it the Asiatic
Petroleum company, which markets
the production of an immensely
wealthy group of companies, including
Shell Transport and Trading company,
Royal Dutch Petroleum company, Ba-
taagsche Petroleum Maatschappij, An
glo- Saxon Petroleum company and the
Commercial and Mining company
Corning the Rothschild group.
FIGHTING FORCE THROUGH WORLD
This powerful fighting force, which
controls the oil production of the
Dutch East Indies and has interests
in Roumania, Galicia and Baku, is di-
rected by Sir Marcus Samuel. Work
ing against the Standard Oil company
in Europe also are a number of vastly
wealthy Russian organizations. In
India and the east it meets with Sc
we're competition from the Burma Oil
company, which alone has capital OF
S12, 10000
1t is officially calculated that the
money brought to the United States
by its oil exports represents more than
$4,000 per hour, twenty-four hours to
the day and 365 days to the year. NO
similar statistics regarding the oppos>
ing group of companies are available,
but their equipment in the form of
pipe lines, oil carrying ships, tanks
and road and rail wagons is on an
equally vast scale
The Standard OIL company's state
ment that they are cutting prices in
the far east in order to increase the
worlds consumption of oil' is too ma
tive a declaration to receive much
credit. 1t is in the far east that they
come to closest grips with the Asiatic
Petroleum company, and there the
warfare will be of the bittereSt and
most relentless description.
OIL SALES IN EUROPE
In the United Kingdom the kerosene
trade, apart from that controlled by
the Standard Oil trust, is in the hands
of the British Petroleum company. The
Asiatic Petroleum company sells no
kerosene in Europe, but its trade in
benzine and petrol in this country is
greater than that of the American
company.
Though the Standard Oil trust and
the Asiatic Petroleum company are old
enemies they have until recently had
selling agreement. The sale by the
Asiatic company of 10.000000 gallons of
petrol to rivals of the Standard Oil
trust in America, however, precipitated
a quarrel which has led to the present
war
Neither the Anglo american COM
pany, which is branch of the Stan
dard Oil trust, nor the Asiatic Petro-
leum company will undertake to book
orders for twelve months at present
prices.