The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-08-30
AGAINST REPUTATION
w. 3. johnson thinks No Effort Should
Be Made to Break Contract
THE ARDMOREITE:

THE ARDMOREIIE:
Your recent article concerning the
contract made by the oil producers to
secure a competing pipe line to the
Healdton field, and the probable con
test to prevent its terms being carried
out, sounds reasonable to many be-
cause you seem to approve of this re-
pudiation by stockholders of the acts
of the directors of the subscribing
companies. Whether this can be done
or not is of little moment compared
with the moral right to do so, and we
doubt if any self-respecting business
man would do so if he could. No honest
man, county, state or nation, ever re-
pudiates his or its obligations, al
though he might by law do so and al
though the obligation was made by
incompetent officials which resulted in
great pecuniary loss.
But is this true of this contract?
When it was entered into, and for
long time before, the Magnolia Pipe
Line was without competition in this
field. Did it take the oil at any price,
But for the acts of the corporation
commission, does any one doubt that
the price of our oil would have re-
NAMED at 30c per barrel or gone
lower? Time and again meetings
were held with representatives of the
Magnolia, prices and amount of oil to
be taken agreed upon, only to be bro
ken within a fortnight by that com
pany, and upon each occasion these
representatives publicly stated that
| they never expected to be able to
take more than $1,000 barrels per day,
and advised us to secure another pipe
line, if possible. Whether they thought
! it possible or not, the fact remains that
it looked like we could not do so, stu
ated as we are on the southern bOun-
Diary of the state, isolated from other
| Oll DtluS anu 'N'NpN 'iioo'
supplied by the Magnolia. Efforts were
made to get other pipe line companies
| to come in, and a committee waited
upon the only competitive refinery of
the Magnolia-the Pierce Fordyce Oil
Co.-and offered every inducement to
get it to build pipe line from Fort
Worth, but without success. Why? Be
cause the Magnolia was furnishing all
it needed at soc per barrel plus car
riage, and it could buy all it wanted
! in the field at SOC and ship over this
| line as a common carrier. The Mag
nola had this competitor all the time.
Now we are told by you that because
a contract was made to furnish 1900
/ barrels of oil for two years at 3Oc
! in order to get a competing line we
have prevented a raise in price by
the Magnolia. How absurd! The oil
we furnish, is contracted to the Santa
Fe, which company the Magnolia new
er furnished OIL and besides, we are
reliably informed that they offered
to make the same contract with the
Santa Fe at &c per barrel less than the
! Gainesville Refinery Is getting, and
were refused Had the Magnolia Sc
cured this contract, where would the
oil come from except Healdton, and
the argument would have been repeat
! ed that it could not pay more to us be-
cause it would lose money on its con-
tracts.
Excepting myself, because ! do not
claim to be a business man, | under
take to say that the directors of the
various companies who made this
! deal and contracted a portion of their
companies oil, are as good business
men and as far seeing as can be found
anywhere. They viewed the situation
| for many weeks, from every stand
point, and finally signed contract
which they then thought and still
| llllIlh was DtSl lOl ali lllC pi iOuuNNi o
1t was thought that we would even
tually realize 45c per barrel for all
the oil thus furnished because we
participate in the profits of the pipe
line and refinery. The Magnolia has
complained because it said it could
not get rid of the fuel OIL therefore
could not take more. The Gainesville
Refinery got rid of its fuel oil in ad-
vance, and If the enormous profits we
all suppose refneries make out of the
lighter products. is realized, we will
participate in these profits.
In conclusion, Mr.. Editor we will
say that we prefer to follow the foot
steps of successful business men in
business proposition, rather than those
of disgruntled soreheads who have new
er been able to conduct their own
business successfully,and who can on
ly attract attention by the noise they