i 9 6 GILBERT HOLLAND MONTAGUE 



of stock; and, after permission to attend the meetings of the 

 company and to vote the stock had been refused by unani- 

 mous vote of the other stockholders, the courts decided in 

 favor of the National Transit company. The purchase of 

 stock was made, says Mr. Archbold, "with a view to having 

 such knowledge as we could have rightfully through such 

 ownership — as we should acquire in the progress of the 

 affair;" and this information the National Transit company 

 gets from its one director upon the board of the United States 

 Pipe Line company. 



To prevent the Standard Oil company from obtaining 

 control of these independent organizations, the Pure Oil com- 

 pany was projected in June, 1895, to secure control of the 

 other independent companies. In 1897 the Pure Oil company 

 was organized as a New Jersey corporation with authorized 

 capital stock of $1,000,000. In its structure this company 

 is curiously like the former Standard Oil trust. The holders 

 of 66,000 shares in the company, being more than a ma- 

 jority, vest the voting power of such shares in fifteen per- 

 sons for twenty years; and it is agreed that one half of all 

 shares hereafter subscribed shall similarly be transferred to 

 the trustees. The ownership of the shares may be trans- 

 ferred, but purchasers have no rights other than those 

 provided by the trust agreement. The trustees are to vote 

 as a unit, to the full number of the shares they hold at 

 the election of directors. One third of the trustees retire 

 annually, and their successors are elected by the general stock- 

 holders. By a vote of three fifths of both classes of stock- 

 holders, on the redemption of the preferred shares at $110, 

 the trust may be cancelled. The formation of the voting 

 trust, it was claimed, was made necessary by the attempt of 

 the National Transit company to secure control through the 

 purchase of shares of the Producers' Oil company and the 

 United States Pipe Line company. In order to keep the con- 

 trol of the latter company in hands friendly to the independent 

 interests, there was devised a voting trust agreement, accord- 

 ing to which the signers vested their interests in the stock in 

 a certain Mr. A. D. Wood as trustee for five years from the 

 1st of April, 1893, unless sooner terminated by a vote of three 



