RISE OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY 179 



complete embargo was placed on the sale of oil to the South 

 Improvement company. Committees were hurriedly de- 

 spatched to the railway officials, to Harrisburg, and to Wash- 

 ington. On March 15th a resolution was introduced into 

 the house of representatives at Washington to investigate 

 the South Improvement company. On March 25th, in an 

 agreement signed by the independent refiners, the railroads 

 publicly abrogated their contract with the company, and an- 

 nounced that "all arrangements for the transportation of oil 

 after this date shall be upon a basis of perfect equality to all 

 shippers, producers, and refiners, and that no rebates, draw- 

 backs, or other arrangements of any character shall be made 

 or allowed that will give any party the slightest difference in 

 rates or any discrimination of any character whatever; and, 

 with this announcement, they issued new rates about 40 per 

 cent lower than those provided by the contract. On April 

 6th, before it had the opportunity to do any business, the 

 South Improvement company was summarily deprived of its 

 charter by the Pennsylvania legislature. The company has 

 never since had an apologist. The Standard Oil company, in 

 spite of its part in the unfortunate combination, has always 

 disapproved of the contract. And the bitterest reproach 

 which opponents of the Standard Oil company heap against 

 it is the taunt that the contract of the South Improvement 

 company was renewed with the Standard "alliance," which 

 was then forming. 



The panic caused in 1872 by publishing the contract of 

 the South Improvement company, though never more than 

 fright — for the contract was never kept — still seemed to 

 make the situation more acute. Under the stress of such 

 difficult conditions, small concerns gave place to large, and 

 large concerns combined into yet greater ones. Throughout 

 1872, 1873, and 1874 small refiners were driven into insolvency 

 or forced into selling. The causes assigned for this are two. 

 "The overproduction of 1873, 1874, and 1875," explains a 

 leading opponent of the Standard Oil company, "and the 

 consequent almost entire destruction of petroleum values gave 

 the Standard Oil company, with its organization and capital, 

 almost the desired monopoly." Discrimination in freight rates 



