New Britain herald., 1917-04-24
STANDARD OIL co.
 BLAMED FOR HIGH COST OF GASOLINE
Federal Trade Commission ReCOnl- mends Re-Opening of GoV-
 ernment'S Anti Trust Suit

NO REAL COMPETITION
 AMONG OIL COMPANIES Common Ownership of Stock i'm Dif-
 fereart Companies But No Conciu-
 save Evidence of COllusion-NIodi-
 fication of Supreme Court Decision
 sousht-Head, ,of New Jersey Com
 pany Denies Price Fixing.
 Washington, April 24.-Domination of the gasoline industry by Standard OH interests, the Federal Trade Com- mission reported to the senate today. has been largely responsible for high gasoline prices of the last two years.
 The report, written after an <ex- haustive investigation into the entire petroleum industry, declares inter- locking stock ownership prevents any real competition among the various
 
 mission recommends legislation to permit reopening of the Oil Trust case to obtain notifications of the supreme courts dissolution decree.
 No conclusive evidence was found, IL IS stated. that cOllusion exists among the Standard companies in violation Of the decree, but the com missions findings have been trans m1tted to the attorney general.
 Prices are declared to have been raised arbitrarily although natural causes contributed. Pronounced price inequalities were found in different parts of the country
 Finds of Commission.
 The principal findings of the com mission are:
 That in most marketing territories the standard companies are dominant.
 That the Standard Companies have maintained distribution of territory In marketing gasoline, and that no substantial competition in the chief petroleum products exists among the Standard Companies
 That the absence of competition is due to community of stock owner ship.
 That the facts disclose advances in prices of gasoline and differences in price. corresponding to Standard mar keting territories, which could not be explained except under the conditions charged
 That the combination of pipe lines with other branches of the industry has tended to establish and perpetuate monopoly.
 That there Is no conclusive evidence of collision among the Standard com panies in violation of the dissolution decree.
 Commissions Recommendations. :
 The commission recommended these measures as necessary to remedy con- ditions:
 A law providing for the reopenine of antitrust cases on the application of the attorney general by a bill of review for the purpose of obtaining such modtfications of decrees as are required by new conditions. Legislation to abolish in certain cases common stock ownership in cor porations formerly members of com binations dissolved under the Sher- man law. Effective limitation of common own. ership of stock in potentially competi- tive corporations by withdrawing the power of voting and control. Legislation, which, while recogniz- ing common ownership would fix upon such common owners the responsibil- tty for the acts of each of the several subsidiary companies which preven, competition. Segregation of ownership of pipe lines from the other branches of the petroleum industry. |. Congressional enactment to fix standards for gasoline. Federal collection and publication o1 l accurate statistics and information concerning the industry. Conditions i'm Industry. Conditions in the gasoline industr, l as uncovered by the investigation are l declared to be:
 Gasoline marketing is divided into eleven territorial divisions, at least nine of which are said to be under ] Standard Oil domination. Stockholders of the Standard com. panies to a great degree are the same individuals or interests, with more 1 than half of the stock of the various l companies in their hands. l Leading officers of the Standard 1 companies hold considerable stock 1T l two or more companies | Standard Oil ref1neries produced more than sixty per cent of the gaso line output in 1915, sold about sixty five per cent. of the total marketed and held more than seventy per cent of gasoline stocks. i-~ Correspondence of the, differen prices in 1915 with standard market ing territories" says the report, "itsel points to arbitrary price fixing, Ru the arbitrary character of the ineuual ities in price is conclusively demon strated by the facts that as betweer most of the territories there were n,