Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-11-04
STANDARD OIL IN SEED TRUST.
So Says Attorney General OF MiSsis-
sippi, I'm Investigation.

Jackson, Miss, Oct. ga CORES
pondent has learned on high author
ity that Attorney General Ross A.
Collins, of Mississippi, Is in possession
of documentary evidence which goes
to disclose a most sensational combi-
nation of big business, claiming
toll from the cotton producers of the
Southern States. Civil suits, which
may be followed BY wholesale crimi-
nal prosecutions, will it is expected,
be instituted forthwith.
Back of the gigantic combine, 1t is
alleged, is the hand of the Standard
Oil Company. According to the
States case the new trust became so
grasDing in it's manifold operations
that the small independent cotton
seed oil mills in the South were
forced to organize a secret society,
known as "The Sons of Plato" to fix
the price Of seed in many States.
Attorney-General Collins is not
only determined to break up the
trust, but to dissolve THE Sons OF
Plato" and thereby restore cotton
seed to competition. He has already
filed bills OF complaint against 98 cot
ton seed oil mills in Mississippi. many
OF them subsidiaries, it is alleged, of
Proctor & Gamble, of Cincinnati, the
American Cotton Oil Company, of
New York, and the Southern Cotton
Oil Company, of New York. Attorney
General Collins declares he has proof
that will show the Standard Oil Com
pany to control the concerns men
toned.
Besides Mississippi, the Attorney
General is understood to be in posses
sion of evidence that the States OF
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisi-
ana, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Texas. Virginia and Tennessee have
all suffered at the hands of the trust;
also, that The SoHs of Plato exist
in those States.
In Combine Since 1900.
According to the Attorney General,
all Of the cotton oil mills iii these
States have been in combine si2"e
1900.
Prior to 1900 cotton seed was sell
ing at very small prices, for in those
days varied industries for by-prod-
ucts, such as lard, oils, cakes, hulls,
etc, had not found markets, or If any
only to limited extent. The small
mills have utilized only by-products,
such as meal, hulls, linters and oil,
the bigger, or trust mills, going ex-
tensively into the manufacture of
lard, soap, Oil, fertilizers and other
products, working up enormous ex-
port and internal trade on these pro-
ducts
The oil mills may be divided into
two trust" mills and "inde-
pendents." The trust mills, it is con-
tended, consist Of Proctor e. Gamble.
i.
Buckeye Mills; the Southern Cotton
Oil Company, of New York, owners of
the Refuge Mills in Mississippi; the
American Cotton Oil Company. rr
New TUrk. controlling mills In Mis-
aIasivpl Arkansaa, Ge0r&ia, Alabama.
TCunassse, an,isal atbar Southern
Sl1ras the Mills Hemg d4sigu2led Uy
the .aNl" o. the state 1H NNi"N they
are located.
These three concerns, it is alleged,
originally dealt in soap and crude
Oil. Having secured a monopoly Of
these fields, it is said they began to
turn their attention to acquiring
crude mills for crushing cotton seed
in order to control the output Of cot
ton seed and by-products.
1t is said that for the past fifteen
years these trust mills have steadily
built and acquired crude mills
throughout the cotton growing
States to such an extent as to actually
control values and fix market prices
Of cotton seed oil and by-products Of
the seed. They raised the price OF
cotton seed oil and by-products Of
the seed. They raised the price OF
cotton seed in the territory Of the
small mills to such an extent that the
independents" lost money and either
went into bankruptcy or sold out to
the trust.