THE GREAT OIL TRUST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 125, 5 September 1910, Page 7

THE GREAT OIL TRUST

SIR W. PEARSON'S VICTORY OVER STANDARD TRUST.

London, July 15. Behind the alleged "shadowing" of Sir Weetman Pearson and his business associates of the Mexican Eagle Oil Company in New York, a full account of which was given by the new peer himself, lies one of those stories of conflict in the business world which prove that romance has not yet been killed by commerce.

Sir Weetman Pearson has been doggedly fighting for the past two years the great Standard Oil Trust of the United States for the right to develop and sell petroleum oil in Mexico. The fight is now practically over. Sir Weetman Pearson has established his company as a paying concern, and refused to amalgamate his interests with those of the Standard Oil Trust or its subsidiary, the Waters-Pierce Oil Company of Mexico.

It was as a contractor for Government railways and works that Sir Weetman Pearson first went to Mexico. So thoroughly and well did he build bis lines and harbors that President Diaz and the Mexicans could not say too much in praise of the British contractor. After a tour of the system in the isthmus of Tehuantepec the President said: '•Portions of this isthmus have been literally re-made. Flourishing new towns, with pretty and comfortable dwellings, and contented inhabitants, owe their existence to the energy and pluck of Sir Weetman Pearson, whose name will endure and be held in honor in thia historic region of Mexico long after the eighty-pound rails over which our party has glided so smoothly .and comfortably have become corroded with age." Four or five years ago Sir Weetman Pearson became interested in the oilfields of Mexico, acquiring the right to prospect over a large area and securing leases of known oil-bearing properties. At first the Standard Oil Company, which bad the virtual monopoly of sale in Mexico, looked with disdain upon the rival concern. Then the Pearson group struck the great Dos Boc'as gusher, which spouted its 300,000 barrels a dny, proved uncontrollable, caught 'fire, 1,000,000 tons of oil being consumed. The loss was considerable, but not disheartening. It proved that the Pearson group had iat least a right to say that oil could be found on its lands. Following the Dos Bocas fire other wells were discovered, and eventually the group secured the exclusive right to prospect over 78,000 square miles of national territory and the leases of 20,000 acres of proved oil property in the State of Vera Cruz. The effect of this successful consolidation of interests and exploitation of new sources of supply was soon felt by the Standard Oil Company, which found j itself not only deprived of its monopely, but even of part of its supplies for its refineries. So hot did the fight become that the Standard Oil Trust paid a tax of 10 dollars ( £3 4s) per barrel upon immense quantities of oil rather than allow the Pearson group to sell at its own price. From Mexico the fight was transferred to the United States, the Standard j Oil Trust believing that Sir Weetman Pearson intended to obtain capital there | for the continuance of the fight and the : further development of the Mexican business.

There has even been an echo of the fight in this country in advertisements and articles which were published in the early part of the year. To-day the fight would appear to he almost over, though he would Ibe a rash man who predicted that the Standard Oil Trust had actually fired its last shot.