Standard Oil Company Quotes
Standard Oil was found guilty after over 400 witnesses of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the company was broken up. However this quotation and {629196} were crucial in the decision against Standard. Very often, the defense of the successful monopolist is that the industry could not have been made successful other than the way he did it.
The Rockefeller Trust was Standard Oil and its many subsidiaries and other related companies. Note the firmness with which the President announced the prosecution of this huge trust. In modern times, Presidents have rarely been so definitive about their intention to prosecute a corporation.
The only previous source of light in America had been whale oil or candles—both very expensive. Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and refinery techniques developed to produce Kerosene. (Gasoline was too explosive and dangerous for home use.) Everyone’s standard of living depended on Kerosene at the time and John D. Rockefeller controlled the price everywhere except New York. There were no monopoly or antitrust laws when he gobbled up his competitors and he rapidly became the richest man in America and one of the most hated. His abuse of the system at the time led to the government regulation of monopolies and the antitrust laws. It was very courageous for the Atlantic Monthly to publish this article, as Rockefeller’s power extended all over the nation—but less in New York where the magazine was published.
The then New York gubernatorial candidate was rejecting the support of a major political leader, Patrick H. McCarren, who had been a paid lobbyist for Standard Oil.
In 1908 William Randolph Hurst made public a series of letters showing that the senator was being paid large sums by the Standard Oil company and was also being instructed on pending legislation. See John Archbold. The senator was pressured out of public life:
The State Department has always been reluctant to have the US Government make an official condemnation of the Turkish. Prior to the end of WWI. Turkey’s Ottoman Empire controlled most of the Middle East which was discovered to be full of oil. Armenia had no oil. The State Department since then (and until the 1970s) it has made it a top priority to advocate for Standard Oil and other American oil companies with the Turks and then the Arabs regardless of the morality of the situation. Despite the fact that virtually every American leader wanted to advocate for the Armenians, the State Department held fast to not
upset Turkey about the Armenian Genocide. Cardashian was the first American who openly stated what the real motivation was. See {638251}, {620602}, {620603}, {620604}, {620605}, and {620606}
At the time, the Chamber of Commerce represented the small and medium business which were being decimated by the large businesses and their monopolies. A century later, the Chamber became a creature of the large business and their money and by 2010, the Chamber had virtually become the representative of the large businesses outside of the high technology field and had become a campaigning arm of the Republican Party, In 1880 however, they called public attention to the abuses of the large corporate monopolies.
It is not capitalism that is the problem but
She had done a monumental exposé of the Standard Oil Company illegal and immoral activities. The public was so aroused that many reforms were instituted and the Standard Oil Company Trust was broken up into many smaller companies. Tarbell was then, in the words of S. S. McClure, “the most famous woman in America.”
The National City Company was formed expressly as an attempt to dominate and monopolize the United States economy. It was a holding company that included Standard Oil, National City Bank, 16 other banks, and the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads among others, all controlled by the same 3 men--William Rockefeller, .James Stillman, and Frank Vanderlip.
If he had said “No” he would have been guilty of perjury and risk jail. Yet he did not want to admit that he and his company had bribed many legislators to obtain favorable legislation which was a crime then. Congress changed the system so that wealthy men and companies could legally make “campaign donations”.
The Chancellor was defending himself from the January 29, 1908 presidential message to Congress in which Theodore Roosevelt castigated him for writing articles in defense of the Standard Oil Company and other monied interests that Roosevelt had attacked.
This letter and others giving Standard Oil's "instructions" on how to amend certain legislation were obtained by the press and read in a speech by William Randolph Hearst on September 17, 1908.
Vanderbilt with his railroad monopoly was able to dictate prices to all the oil refineries for the transportation of kerosene of which over 400 million gallons was shipped annually to provide light to the USA and some other countries as well. However by charging some higher prices than others he could ruin some after investing in others. Under pressure, he made this famous agreement. The agreement became famous for although he charged all refineries the same, he gave rebates (kickbacks) secretly to Standard Oil ensuring that they would have an oil monopoly. Then Standard oil demanded to be paid their “rebate” on all oil the railroads shopped for Standard competitors. Their demands grew. When Standard could net get a big enough kickback to drive all the other refineries out of business, they built their own pipelines to bypass the railroads entirely. As there was virtually no regulation of monopolies or common carriers, most of this was legal, but was so egregious that it led to the passage of the Anti-Tust laws.
