A Great Monopoly

Very few oí' the forty millions of people n the United States who burn kerosene who know ihal Lts production, manufacturo, and export, ts prtoe at home and abroad, liave been eoiUxaUad lor ye.us ly a single Corporation, - tlie Standard Oil Compaay. This company began in a partnersliip, in the early years of the civil war, liet ween Sannial Andrews and John Rockefeller inCleveland. Rockefeller had been B bookkeeper in some interior town in Ohio, and had afterwards made a few thousaiul dollars bv keepinaf a flour store in Cleveland. Andrews had been a day laborer in reflneries, and so poor that his wifetookinsewing. Ilefound a way of refining by whicli more kerosene ctíuld be got out of ;i barré) of petroleum than by any other method, nul sel up for himself i ten-barre] si II in Cleveland, by which he cleared $500 in six montha. Andrews' stlll and Rockefeller's Bavinfls have grown into tlic Standard () l Oompany. It has a capital, nominally $:5,500,OÖO, lmt really nrncli more, mi whicli it divides among its atockholders every yar millions oí dollars 'óf proflts. it has reflnettoa. at Cleveland, Baltlmqre, and New York. Its own acid wóxks, glue factories, liardwaif BtOTOS, and barrel shops supply it witli all the accessories it needs in its business. It has bought land at Indianapolifi on which to erect the lartrest barrel factmv in the country. [t lias drawn ita check for $1,000,000 to suppress a rival. It buys 30,000 to 40,000 barrels of crude oil a l:iy, at a price fixetl by ltself, and makes "special contracts witli the railroada for the transportation of 13,000,000 to 14,000,000 barrels of oil a year. The four quarters of the globe are partitioned among tlio meijibers of the Standard eombinations, One has the control of the China trade; another that of tlie United States. In New York, you cannotbuy oil for East Indian export troca the housf that bas been given tbc European trade; recipiocallv, the East Indian house is not allowed to sell for export to Europe. T'u Standavd produces oniy one fifticth oi slxtteth ui' our petroleum, but ilictaii-s the price of all, and relincs nine tenths, (Mrculara ave issui'd il intervals by which the prlees of oil s Qxed for tbc' citlés of the try, exoept New York, where t little coinpetition survives. Sucli s the indifference of tin; Standard 00 Company to railroad charges tliat tlie price is made the sanie Coi ponits so t'ar apart as Terre Haute, Chicago, and Reokuk, There is not to-day a nimehant in ('liicago, or in any other city in the New Engluml, Western, ov Southern States, dealing in kerosene, whoee ppices are not flxed hiin bv the Standard, In all casus these prices aro gradetl so that a merchant In one city cannot export to anotiier. Cliicago, Cincinriati, or Cleveland is not allowed to supply the tributary towns. That ís done by the Standard ltself, which runs oil in its own tank care to all the principal points of distribution. ïhis corporaiion lias driven into bankruptcy, or out of business, or into unión witli ilsclf, all the petrohtnm rcfineries oi the country except ftve in New Vork, una a few of little conscquence in Westeni Eennsylvaaia. Xobody knows how rnany ïnillions Ilockefeller is worth. Current gossip among his business acmiaintance in Cleveland puts his income last yeav at a figure second only, if second at all, to that of Vanderbilt. I ris partner, Samuel Andrews, the poor Ensjlish day laborer, retired yeara ago with mllliöns. Just who the Standard Oil Company are, exartly what their capital is, and uliat are tüeir relations to the railroads noïiody knows oxcojit in pari Thelr offleers refused to testlfy before the supreme court of Pennsylvaala, the late New York Hailroad InvBstigatlng ('oinmittee, and a coiamittee of Congress. ïlie New Vork.coiiHiiitifc lound theré wás nóihlng to be Imrned froin them, and waa eompelled to confesa lts inaliiiity ascertain as mucn as t desired to know "of tliis mysterious organization, whose business and transactions are of such a charaeter that its members declined giving a history or descriptlon, lest their testlmony be úsed