The Washington herald., 1912-06-02
By JAMES B. MORROW.

White says that he had looked for an IN
crease in price for more than a year
The production Of petroleum has falleI
on in Illinois and Oklahoma
George White Is an oil man himself
He declares that the Standard has al
ways fixed the market for raw and re
fined petroleum and intimates that
though legally dissolved, it always will
In short John D. Rockefeller remains
king Of the pipes and wells
Almost accidentally, George White Is
also member of Congress, coming from
the Marietta district in Ohio, where the
landscape Is Hollandish with derricks in
stead Of windmils and where walking
beams rattle gayly up and down Wood
row Wilson taught him politics and turis-
prudence at Princeton. He was among
the first of the stampeders In 1888 TO
travel the terrible Chilkoot Pass and for
three years was a miner In Alaska Al
together he is a very human. and there
fore an uncommonly interesting man
OIL, gold and politics Is mixture enough
for a melodrama- And George White is
sufhciently rugged and romantic to hold
attention on almost any stage. The at
mosphere in which he has lived from
bOyhOod has been filed with dramatic
influences and events II was at Titus
vile. where he went to the public schools
and prepared for college. that Col Z. l.
Drake, a railroad conductor and "a fool
from Connecticut" as he humorously
called himself struck OIL
The First American OIL Well.
The gusher, flowing twenty barrels a
day came in as the phrase goes, on
August 2S, 1853. Mr.. Rockefeller was
then twenty years old and a partner in
a commission firm in Cleveland that was
receiving butter and eggs from Henry
N. Flagler, a small merchant in the
country the same Flagler who once told
me that he left his fathers poor little
manse in a New York village, walked
nine miles to the Erie Canal, and then
boarded a freight boat for the West,
arriving in Ohio with "a five-franc piece,
a French coin that was current in this
country for a dollar: five cents in silver.
and four copper pennies" He was four
teen years old Now he is eighty-two
and stin a steaming man Of business.
The Drake well was sixty-nine and
one-half feet deep A great throng Of
adventurous characters hurried to Titus
Vile, and swarmed up and. down OIL
Greek, which crookedly flowed in a gorge
between high banks. other wells were
dug. BY the end OF the year" Mr..
White said to me, that is, from the
last OF August, 1853, to January l, 1850, |
four months in all, the total production |
had reached 1900 barrels. 1t was valued
at S1,slO,0O0. The production during the |
following year. 1850. amounted to 10000
barrels. The price at that time had
fallen to SO. The production was more
than quadrupled in 1851. and the price
Of so a barrel in January dropped to |
20 cents a barrel in September"
Four years later, Mr.. Rockefeller be- I
gan to apply the methods that gave
stability to the oil market The wild |
fluctuations stopped. Drake, in the |
had vanished from Titusville I
Ten years after, a newspaper man found |
him at Long Branch. in New Jersey. He |
was living in poverty and his legs were |
paralyzed. A purse of $500 was sent
him from the oil regions. the Legisla-
ture OF Pennsylvania voted him yearly
pension Of $500 and. when he died. H
H. Rogers, another Of Mr.. RockefeIler's
partners, placed a granite and bronze
monument at his grave in the TitusviIle
cemetery.
brakes production of twenty barrels a
day in August. 1sj9-and his was the only
oil well in the United States-is set
against a daily production Of 723,SsS bar
rels in the year 1911 to show the growth I
0f single American industry. Nor can
John D. Rockefeller and Henry NJ. Flag
Ter be eliminated as the principal actors
IN one OF the most stirring stories in all
he annals of trade, industry and COM
nerce.
Went Out Among the Derricks.
The boy, George White. grew up at
Titusville. He returned from Princeton
With petroleum in his blood. Il can
fire 1000 bookkeepers in Pittsburg," his
Employer said one day. You have a neat,
Vhite-shirt job, my boy, but if you really
want to know all about oil, I advise you
o 60 out into the field and smear your l
lands and face with grease"
So George White went clothed mostly
n overalls. His pay was S3 a day.
When he returned'from the Klondike he
lad capital enough to become producer
4 oil on his own account. He has wells ,
n Ohio, Oklahoma and elsewhere and is
Competent tn discuss the petroleum ques- !
ion from any standpoint.
What effect" asked him, has the /,
dissolution of the Standard had on the ,
Il business?''
None that is perceptible," he answered. :
Crude petroleum has gone up in price !
D the Eastern, or Appalachian field but !
he advance was foreseen a year ago. !
reduction, we knew, had fallen of in | :
market, consequently, cannot be attrIbu-
ed to the troubles that have overtaken
he Standard Oil Company, nor to its I
ispleasure at the action Of the govern r
tent or the decision Of the court I am .
onsciOus. however, of a slight difference
] my own Independent business. For >
ieriy I could, after ascertaining how l
iuch crude oil I had in the pipe lfnes, b
ct a check from the Standard the same f
fternoon. Now, my boolzkeeper informs I
he, We must wait until the following =
ay. In other respects, so far as I can | a
ee, the breaking up OF the Standard has v
OF caused any change whatever in the h
Il industry. The men who ran the cd n
ompany and made the market are IN t
ontrol to-day" s
There Is No Competition Now. e
Are large corporations now engaged =,
! competing against the various COM D
anies that once composed Mr. Rookie
sller's monopolistic organization?" a
The Pure on Company in the East, q
nd the Gulf and Texas Companies in 9
ie Southwest, are supposed to be night =
lg the old Standard crowd for the oil =
1siness Of the country. John W. Gates q
rgsni1ed the Texas Company, but he "
dead The Melons, Of Pittsburg, con- Il
ol the Gulf Company. and Michael p
-urphy and several Pennsylvania bank y
3 are dominant in the Pure on Com .
my. These concerns were said to be e
,mpetitors Of the Standard They are pl
,mpeting yet, I suppose, In former q
shlon. As a matter Of fact, however. N
ere has been no counpefitfou IN the ofI ~