Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-09-12
TRUST BUSTING AFTERMATH.

1t Will be some months yet before the stock
trading public will know how to deal inte
gently In the shares of the Standard Oil company
in those Of the thrty-three subsidiary com
panies that will go December las far as all
legal forms go-be as absolutely independent of
the Standard is the Skowhegan Livery and
Sales company of Maine the Kalamazoo Celery
corporation Of Michigan. Nor will the holders
OF Standard certificates or Of stocks in the sub
salaries know definitely as to their value in each
instance until the distribution of the subsidiary
shares shall have been completed and company
checks for dividends on them shall have pro-
Jected some notion to their present earn
ing power. 1t IS not impossible, of course
that some Of these subsidiary concerns do not nav
dividends; and on the other hand there may be
some genuine surprises in store for the public and
Tor Standard shareholders-for some of the sub
salaries may have been paying bigger profits
than the high record disbursements of the parent
corporation itself thus indicating where the bases
OF It's enormous dividends have lain This pc
culiar situation comes, of course from the long
established policy Of the Standard in the matter
OF non-publicity to its affairs on the exact
sources OF ITS income Investors have had to
take 1t wholly on faith or not at a-but no.
body now recalls that the holders of certif .atos
have ever been found among the company s crit
les 1T is the public and stable section of the
press that has now and then noisly demanded that
the public be taken into the companys .onG
dence. 1T may yet be disclosed that under Il g
circumstances policy of sence'' was The bel
ter one in this particular instance
Following the final adjustment of thes, rather
complicated company relations complicated how.
ever, only outsiders view the enterprise--all,l
the beginning OF independent operation by parent
and subsidiaries alike, some things now seem
bound to happen. In all probability there ar,
numerous instances wherein one executive ore
officer one employee has performed certain
in FL thn :,
outfit for certain groups of then--thrs
effectmg a great saving in the cost of opera.
ton and permitting big profits not otherwise
possible. And in the matter Of materials uStG
by all of the companies or by groups of them
there has, of course been common basis of sup
ply with the prices the lowest possible All these
mutual advantages in doing business must NY,
disappear Each company must now "pat',lc
its own canoe" no matter what the cost--lor
is it not unlawful to "combine' for mutual
company advantage and for serving the public
at the lowest possible prices compatible with r,a.
sonable profits to shareholders? IT, for instance
the Standard Oil company of Indiana has been
furnishing thrty-two or twenty-four or sixteen
associate companies with certain of its products
at an inside or mutual advantage" price, this
arrangement has constituted an unreasonable re-
straint of trade according to the last resort de-
cree in Interpretation of the Sherman law, and
the practice cannot continue These concerns
must buy in the open market
1t ought to surprise nobody if several thou
sand additional executives and other officers will
now become necessary in order to conduct the
affairs Of the Independent companies or if all
of these concerns will now be found compelled
to pay much higher prices than heretofore for
much of their cars and semi-manufactured mate
rals--and all this, at "A cost of many millions of
dollars annually in excess of the cost in recent
years. And if prices to the consumer go up in
consequence ought anybody to be surprised!
Refined Illuminating oil is only one of Thea
sand and one products heretofore supplied to the
consuming public by the Standard Oil company
Of New Jersey either directly or through the
subsidiary concerns If the retail prices of
these-or of most of gradually advance
in the near future, upon whom what will the
responsibility be thrust now that the trust" has
been busted by the government of the United
States?