THE RISE AND SUPREMACY OF THE STANDARD 



OIL COMPANY. 



BY GILBERT HOLLAND MONTAGUE. 



[Gilbert Holland Montague, lawyer and economist; born Springfield, Mass., May 27, 

 1880; graduated from Harvard university and Harvard Law school; began the prac- 

 tice of his profession in New York city immediately after graduation; author of 

 several contributions to the study of trusts in economic reviews, the article printed 

 below having appeared originally in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Author 

 of Trusts of To-day.] 



The rise and progress of the Standard Oil company, from 

 its inception in 1865 till its control, in 1878, of 95 per cent 

 of the oil business of the United States, has presented itself 

 to different critics in somewhat different characters; certain 

 conservative writers think it was largely the result of dis- 

 criminations in freight rates, extorted by more or less ques- 

 tionable practices from the easy virtue of the railroads. But 

 just why the railroads found it expedient to grant such un- 

 usual favors, and why this particular group of men, above 

 all others, proved best able to extort such favors, no one 

 has satisfactorily explained. Corruption of the railway of- 

 ficials has been vaguely suggested; but it has not been shown 

 whence this group of men had the means to suborn the rail- 

 ways, and no writer has been able to point to a piece of precise 

 evidence, found by any court or investigating committee in 

 the United States, which proved such subornation of rail- 

 way officials, though it is not inconceivable that some evidence 

 may exist. Congressional and legislative committees, on the 

 other hand, and the more cautious writers on trusts, have 

 been equally put to it to find in those acts of the railways 

 which eventually made the Standard Oil company supreme 

 any self interested motives. The fact of the discrimination 

 in freight rates seems to account for the supremacy of the 

 Standard Oil company. But why those refiners identified 

 with the Standard Oil company, instead of some other group 

 of refiners, should persistently have obtained the best rates, 

 has been, to these investigators, a baffling mystery. 



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