The Washington herald., 1914-06-14

Philadelphia, Baltimore. and Pittsburgh;
at Whiting, Ind. which means chicsgo;
at East Alton. Ill. which means 81
Louis; at Sugar Creek. which means
Kansas City; at Baton Rouge. La,
where the channel il nifty feet deep; ri
San Francisco, and at various ether
places in the far West Southwest. and
Northwest.
"And yet all the while there was COM
petition, though II grew feeble as the
Standard. rolling In wealth. extended .ts
outposts and then occupied region after
region with its tank farms and its 5000
distributing stations. Formerly. the re-
finer sold oil to the 1obber, the Jobbsr
slid II to the retailer and the retailer
sold II to the consumer. Profits were dis
tributed. The Standard often cut out
the jobber and the retailer and dealt
directly with the consumer, thus pocket
ing two profits 1t had overlooked. or.
at least. had not collected In the early
development of its business.
1T requires no ability. mentally. at
any rate, to follow on q bicycle a little
man who has invested S175 In a horse
wagon and several cans. to watch him de-
liver oil to his customers. to get the
names of the customers and then to drive
him out OF business by underseilIng
oiiohS thOSc CubtoHlcfS- lSn
genius. hesitate to give IT the name
1t deserves.
How the Independents Grew.
No one will say. either, that 1t denotes
q high type of business intellect to sell
oil In Denver at 30 cents q gallon and at
s1-2 cents q gallon In New Orleans. the
oil from both cities going from Whiting.
Ind. and the distance to each from the
point Of shipment being about the same.
when James R. Garfield. as Commits
sioner Of Corporations. began his. investi-
CATION OF the petroleum industry in 1904,
he found that the Standard was doing
"a 2-lo per cent OF the refining business
of the country. The independents were
doing the rest. or Is s-1o per cent. Since
then. only ten years ago, the figures
have changed. Now the independent re-
fners are doing more than 40 per cent of
the oil business Of the United States. The
activity Of State governments and the
national government and the publicity
given Standard methods by the newspa-
pers have. in large measure. brought
about the revolution. and that word de-
scribes what has actually taken place.
About 1,50o jobbers are buying petrol
cum and its products from independent
reiners. The purchases are made in car
load lots. and the oil Is sold to retail
dealers. The competition has caused the
Standard to come out in the open and to
fight more fairly than has been its custom
in the past. Brute strength is giving way
to more enlightened comercial practices
to the moral and intellectual uplift Of the
men employed by the Standard The court
decision. too. as have said. has helped
some. Better men Of business are being
developed by the Standard. They are
striving among themselves. you see. to
make personal regulations. The Ohio
Oil Company. owning pipe lines and .
few wells and acting as sales agent for
the Standard. earned 152 per cent in 1913.
The Prairie Oil and Gas Company. en-
gagged in similar lines of business, earned
s. per cent.
Notwithstanding the headway made
by independent manufacturers. owning 155
refneries. thirty OF which are in Okla
homa and twenty in Kansas. the Stand
ard continues to dominate the petroleum
industry. though II cannot refine oil any
cheaper than can the independents. nor
can it dispose of its products on a lower
basis Of sales expense. Its 1000 miles of
trunk pipe lines alone gives il the mas
terry Of the business.
Producers OF crude oil are more or
less at the mercy of the Standard. The
largest Of them operate in several fields