“The Great Oil Octopus.”

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 32, 8 March 1912, Page 3

“The Great Oil Octopus.”

Story of the Development, Methods, Lien, and Resutts of " Standard Oil."

By London "Truth's" Investigator.

(Capyriijlil. All Rights Reserved.)

You have been in politics long enough to know that no man in public office, owes tho public aitything."— Senator Mark Manna to tlije Ohio At-torne-y-Gcuoral. ■■■- j ~ CHAPTER XlVi . THE ROCKEFELLERS JUNO THE HOME OFFICE.; Naturally tlie juggle by! which the low Hash-point was thus stereotyped in tho Act ol 1871> had its ejects. Tho number of petroleum accidents, began to increase, and so Sir V. lVlajeudie was sent to visit 2-12 places in j£n.glami and tho Continent and then to America, in both these series of visits 'ho was accompanied by Air. Bovertoji Redwood, Sewo#ary of lhe i'otroleuni Association, "who was good onuugh to' accompany mc and rentier mo groat assistance," an Sir Viviaai put it. 1 have ljio means of knowing whether Air, Redwood was able to obtain the same letters of introduction from Mi. Win.', .Rockefeller which lie had secured in 1877, but 1 do Icnoh , that there was ono jsubject the pair did not inqiiiiv into. It appears in Colonel JVinjendie's examination before the Sc-1-e-et Goiniiiilteo oil I't'ti oleum by Captain iiope (Report aijd Evidence, I'm, Q. 2Uli-21'2)-.-Q. • Aro you aware tliat in Scotlaiid, where Scotch oil has b'oeri mo*tly in use, there have hitherto been very ft'iv fires or lamp accidents '< A.:NNto t 1 have no statistics of lamp -accidents. 1 have only a general knowledge derived from hevvspapers f awd from those -who , havo given to the subject a- larger stucjy. '•■ Q.: When you were making your 'iiVquiriosiri America did you go into tlie question of the .frequency of lamp accidents? ; . ' ■■• ■•■■■ A.: Not lamp accidents; I think, at all. : W'hilo this surprising omission was occurring lamp accidfiits cpii.tiinicd to go up. in' London they rose from 45 in 1873 to 27.1 in 1890. In that year the twin brethren, Sir 1 ,, . Aliel and Mr. i Redwood, were directed by the tionie ■ Ofiioe' to make U) inquiry into the suoj'ect,' iuid they'discovered that it 'was all dins to bad This ingenious theory sot every coroners, County Council, Ifoino Office —> i.iHf full cry ; after a lovely; lx;d-herring, and. diverbed attention- several years from tho Standard's explosive oil. Wlysn- Mr. Lockwood came over in 1877 it was tho bad wicks; now, in 1890, it was tho bad lamps. The objections to attempting to seciire. immunity from petroleum lamp accidents by any lamp law aro .these-: : — 1. Nobody has. yet guaranteed any absolutely sal'o lamp.. , ■ 2. Nobody can guarantee that a safe lamp will remain sa'fc : in wear, or oan compol tlio owners to buy a new ono when it is in bad re.ftair. 3. In both Scotland and America, where- petroleum is produced and refined, the remedy has been sought, not in a lamp law, but in raising the flash-point. The Standard at Westminster. While tho British officials were chasing the lamp-law vvill-o'-tli'-wisp, Mr. Rockefeller was sending over here petroleum oil which could not be sold in most of the States of the Union, and tho number of lamp accidents hero was still rising. In London they rose from 271 in 18' JO to 173 in 1895. By this time an inquiry could not be avoided; the Select Committee to which 1 have referred began to sit, and between 1894 and 1898 to take evidence and report. The evidence before that Committee in support of the- Standard Oil Trust's contentions was extensive and peculiar. There was Sir Frederick Abel, who admitted to tho Committee that as chemist to the War Oflioe he had recommended tho adoption of 100 dog. or 105 dog. oil for use in barrack-rooms. Yot he was prepared to maintain that 73 deg. was sufficiently high for a lamp in a crowded tenement house, where obviously the chances of accident aro far greater than in the strictly regulated and disciplined barrack-room. Then there was Air. Boverton Redwood, and he, too, declared that the flashpoint of 73 deg. was sulliciontly high for public safety. The most remarkable thing about his evidence was the damaging admissions he was compelled to rnnke. which gave away his whole case. Here are two :—

I am clearly of opinion that in order to avoid accidents the flashpoint must be raised, and that no construction of lamp will meet the difficulty. More Standard Agitation.

The Select Committee at last reported in favor of 1-ai.siiiy; tlte flash-point and an agitation, started by the "Star" newspaper in support of this course received thc< adhesion of a largo number of newspapers, eoroiic.-s, and oi tiit London County Conned. At the sametime the Standard Oil Trust started its own characteristic agitations, Petition forms were sent to every oil retailer with requests to übiaiu signatures in opposition to raising tho flasli point. And according to the statement of Mr. "Jasper Tully, M.1 , ., in the ilous?, some of these men in Ireland were t ,, :entente! that they would get no more oil if this was not done- The* result wist* at M.P.s wow hoir.bnrde-i ttiih petitions from their constitiicnciYs. and Sia'ulard Oil agents filled the lobbies A well known Standard Oil ''expert" contributed anonymously a long article t<j the "Times," in which it was represented that the safe-oil agitation t> as due to a desire to secure "p.- itectiori"' for the Scottish trade. It v amusing to recall that ono of the str.jjiixost supporters of this theory \»as the Kig'it Hon. Jesse Ceilings, who in four short years was to become an ardent convert to the theory of "protection,' , not cidy for Scotch oil, but for everything else.

ln my opinion a considerable proportion of the lamp accidents which <imir would not happen if only oil of 120 ileg. or evon 100 dey. Abel tost were used (Q. 1821, 1890 Blue Book). Undoubtedly in a sense the higher tho flashing-point tlu\ safer tho oil, and from that point of view oil of 100 dog. flnshijiK-point must be safer than oil of 73 dcg. flashing-point (Q.

1893). Another very entertaining Standard Oil witness was Professor C. F. Chaiid-

lor, of New York, who explained that he had been coming to Europe for a holiday, and was askt>d b.y the Standard Oil Trust to give evidence against raising tho flash-point. He gave that evidence, and was confronted with this pasage in a report he made to the New York State Board of Health in 1871 :— Thoro' is a Btrong inducement to turn tho heavier portions of the naphtha into tho keroseriei tank so as to pet for It the priod of kerosene.. It is, thoroforo, tho cupidity of the refiner that Iprulfl him to run as miioh

While the Standard was playing up to free-trade, opinion in this way, it was working the "patriotic" dodgo in a very nicely got-up anonymous pamphlet sent to every M.P. In this it was shown that the effect of raising tho flash-point would !>o to stop our cousins across tho Atlantic from sending us oil, and to play into the hands of Russia, which had always been hostile to U3. The old -Russian bogey was still alive in the days before, the Russo-Japanese -and this waving of the tyiuion JaoV no doubt affected some softheaded M.P. %. ■. .

bonzinp as possible into. tlio kerosene, regardless of tlic frightful consequences ol tlio frequent explosions. As this was exactly what the. .Standard was doing, this was rather awkward lor the Professor, but he cynically explained that it was "a reckless statement" made when he was a "reformer." lie admitted that lie had never withdrawn it publicly until that very date in 1890, but he went on to s»allow it whole. The Orange Barrel. Hut tlio prize witness on that sid« was Mr. Paul JJabcoek, whom we saw in 18/7, and who as one of the American directors of the Trust cauio to tell the. Select Committee that the 7.3 deg. oil—tho brands known to tho trade as •'Tea Koso" and "Royal Daylight"— wore as safe-as tho -lUt> deg. oil—the brand kiiowu as- "White Hose." Thereupon Mr. lire, M.1 , ., produced a little folding card just then issued by the Anglo-American Oil Company, Ltd., a copy of which lies before mc as 1 write. On the front page of this little Rockefeller tract—which, I grieve. to say, is not now in circulation, so that mine' lias become a "rare edition"—there are two big orange-colored barrels, and, tho words "White Hose American La,mp Oil." Inside, the.ro is an artless panegyric on "White Rose," of which we are told: — . its firo t*>st is so highas to make it tho safest petroleum lanlp oil in tho world. Kxplosioji is guarded against aiid families can burn Whifc?Rose oil with tho same, ja'sstifiiiiou of safety as they can gas". . a really safe/ . ''ami , reliable illuniinarit, lotc. Of course, alt this clearly proved that, tho Anglo-American Oil Company, whatever, it. might say a J,' }Vestminster, <M not bjC'H.civtv in Billi.tvii'Street thul" 73 deg. oiil was as safe!, as " White : - Itoso," But JMr. Paul fiabcock was a cool hand. He turned the card over carefully, and then remarked that it was "merely advertising bunkum," and that it was issued by the Anglo-Ainorr-ean Oil Company, "who no doubt bought the pif of us." Tjiis was fairly cool in view of tho titc't that the , Standard owns all the shares in the Anglo-American, but it is! even cooler when wo examine the barrel m the picture. The'.baarcl bears at its hea<l a label, '•/viiig'.s County OilWorks, Sono and rieming Mfg.'Co., Limited, New York." Now, Mr. Paul Babcock was himself general manager' to that very Sono and Fleming Company, in addition to beiiig'a director of tho Standard, which, since 1877, had :xmtroll<d it. That incident is a fair •ijH'cimen of tho Standard's evidence at this inquiry. On the other side, evidence was given by Lord Kelvin (tlio greatest scientific man of his day), Sir Henry Koscoe, Professor Ramsay, Professor Attfield, Dr. Stevenson Macadam, Professor D. Men-deleef (who represented the Russian Government and tlio Russian sian petroleum industry), and Dr. Hermann Kasfc (of Karlsruhe), all denouncing the 73 deg. flash-point and advocating its being raised. Sir rleip-y Roscoo said:— I think that Americans send over so much mixed oil of tho chacactu' , of this "Tea Rose" oil only because our flash-point is so low. Lord Kelvin told tho Select Commit-

"Lobbying." There is a characteristic story which relates that somebody, on hearing that tlio site., had been acquired for the new palaoo now completed in Queen Anne's («;Uc, rang up one of the heads of the "Anglo" on the telephone. 'You aic making a' , mistake," said he; "you ought to bo near the City." "Oh! the City doesn't matter,"' replied the .Standard voice on flic telephone; want to lie near is the H/oiiso'jof Commons." There the policy of the; Standard Oil Trust is crystallised in;a; sentence, The Trust is the most lobbyist in llie i\orlil. No other a.s'soeui.t'fon of private capitalists riiaintliins' such .an' espionage system ; no ofcli'e-rbody of that kind has its lobbyists at so. niany. centres of governiii-uut. In most of., the American State JiCgislatufes the'S'taii'dard Oil lobbyist is'as wH].-l>i''(>wii ,, "a.s.'the Speaker. At "Washington, at Ottawa, in the House of CWnriioiis.jin ''Berlin, in Bucharest, to name- b'iit' ii feUv capitals, you will tind the representatives of tbe Koekefellers. TneJr !, [Vro<MMHliiigs and those of Uie rivals who souyht to checkmate them elicited a Severe rebuke from that cautious journal, the "Spectator," on the otedbaion.-of-the debate upon tbe PlaehI»ofti1r>«ill, Writing on March 25, 1889, m^ , (?oubei|)p(>rnf'y observed :~

•'.::;Tho decision as to the proper flash'fi,qiiit for mineral oils really involved 'a po'ssiblo monopoly of the supply ot •f a f° 9 monopoly worth many 'millions,arid - : the signs of excited jk;rso')al and 'pecuniary interest in the'lobbies wore noticed by many observant members of Parliament.

dj.'.clarotl tliat (lie practice o "loUbying"' 'tended to "grow into : peculiarly subtle and dangerous form oi cb Vfiiy tio.ii" : : '—

■v..j,lt Jtas.sp; grown both in-America • -ami.. Ktanco, wd it may grow hero. .tvVfhat with the tendency to create the incessant vitriati<»nH ,>fif .'tluv. tarjft" in some great States, fuasecs of capital at the of individuals or companies. 4he',',p,r<>ri.ts .and losses consequent on ..#'•, wyi, law. may amount to millions, , ix\id innoiig the owners or expectants !.. of (itjiiose- millions there.may t>e soin"? '; ofv.bhpvinoS't iinscrtipulous : of 'ittankiiid. TliAy liave paid soi-rtt- com-' niissiolis all their lives, especially for , ■ 'and they do not see why they should not pay them to ijujijcf! hostile legislators not to"vote' . ■jtiia'jiiiit 'tltem.

:Tfee wi<l of this combined attack was th-n'ti- M-!i(»n the l''l.'tsh-point liiH came 1 '«£>'-for' '.-senmil reading in March, 180!), it ; \Vas reif-Cied, on the pledge of Mr. ' CVrfliuiJjs;' : t i h( , H re-presenting the I lonic •Offifl*;,' , that-thi' UoVM-nitienl would.deal ■with'the whtiki subject of tlifr storage of pdtrolouiii , and of lamp aecujents.. Since that; date nothing has iicc)!. <lune,; and altliouiih all the iiieinbe.rs of. th=o Liberal Clabine.t who were in the House of Commons in (8. ( )9 voted for tlie l^Jftsh-point.. Hill, they have .never .found tiihe or courage to tackle" the Statid:ird Oil monopoly in explosive oil. As ' Lord" ■'lyejvin's , Professor Si7Va;ints P. 'I'lio4ii|)son, says in the cti'fipierbivciulv fpiol.ed: "The seandnl of'J:he' fue s'ote of dangerous low-flash oil "continues."

'■''■"■■ (Tv ij[> continued.)