The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-03-09
STANDARD :.
.... OIL !. REPLY.
What Rockefeller and
Associates Have Done
in Oil Trade

Washington. March o.-Tbe Stand.
ara OH company today filed In the su.
prorne court OF the United States It's
Driet in opposition to the attempt of
the government to dissolve it as yIo-
latlng the Sherman antitrust law.
ms comes as a prelude TO the oral
argument Of the case made by attor-
neys Tor the defense and for the gov
crnment The brief is the work OF D.
T. Watson. John NJ. Freeman and
Ernest C. Irwin. The brief OF the gov.
ernment has not yet been fled
me Keynote OF the defcnse is the
co'called preservation OF tho rights OF
individual citizens OF the United
States
The Issue. according to this brief. is
the charge made In the petition. de-
MED In the answer and rensserted in
the reply, that the seven individual
defendants, John ID Rockefeller, VII
liam r. Rockefeller. John D. Arch
bold, Oliver Payne, Henry NJ. Flagler.
Charles NJ, Pratt and Henry H Rog-
ers, combined and conspired, and con-
tinued to combine and conspirc at the
time the petition was nled. to re-
strain interstate trade in oil and TO
6dlu llouOpOlN OF II
Tho brief asserts that tho circuit
court OF the United States for the
eastern district of Missouri, whose
adverse decree the defendants seek
TO ovorturn. held that, solely because
these individual. Joint owners OF n
group Of non-competitive properties,
engaged for forty years In private
trade, instead of continuing to hold
through trustees controlled by these
defendants, changed In 1899, as the
brief says, "tbe method OF holding
their properties by conveying them to
the Standard OIL company of New
Jersey, and that such change was a
violation OF the Sherman antitrust
act"
This decree is complained of as be-
Ing unjust to the men who. according
to the brief. were n lawful group,
lawfully doing business" and who. af-
ter what is described as a mere con
veyance and solely by reason there
OF became a group OF lawless con-
splrators.' it is charged The claim
that the seven individuals are en-.
gagged In lawful business is cmpha-
sized.
The Standard Oil company as 1t
existed in 1906 and stu exists" says
the brief, was the natural develop
ment and outgrowth of the business
begun In 1862 and steadily pursued
by the Rockefellers and others.
by untiring energy, with Infinite
skill with abundant capital and tho
steady reinvestment of earlier prof
It's. these men and their associates
created out OF an entirely new.
unique and unprecedented product,
crude oil. q new, universally used and
cheaper illuminant than the world has
known. BY creative skill, they Sc
cured from refuse oil valuable by
products. They invented the huge
reservoirs for storing oil-the com
bined pipe line system which gathers
UP and carries the natural products
the tank cars which carry the refined
products.
They created the export trade in
oil transporting IL in ships OF their
own construction and selling 1t in
Asia, India, China, Japan, Russia and
all Europe. They devised the trad
ing stations. the tank delivery wag-
ons, and used every means to cheaper
the product and improve the quality.
From 1862 to 1906-i4 years-the
work went on. They took the risk %
the failure in production. OF destruc-
tion by fire and tempest, besides all
the ordinary risks OF trade They met
all emergencies with competent skin
and sufficient funds. The uneXpect-
ed enormous increase In production
greatly increased their business and
added to its Importance and profit