RISE OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY 197 



fourths of the stock so held in trust. Mr. Wood was al- 

 lowed full power to elect officers, but was bound to vote for 

 persons interested in the business as independent refiners. 

 It is the purpose of the Pure Oil company, at the expiration 

 of this trust agreement, to anticipate any attempt of the 

 Standard Oil company to control the company. 



While the independent refiners have been seeking security 

 in the trust form of organization, the Standard Oil company 

 has adopted the contrary policy. In 1892 the trust dissolved 

 into its constitutent companies, the former trustees holding a 

 majority of the stock in each corporation and the holders of 

 trust certificates exchanging them for the stock of the several 

 companies in agreed proportion. By purely informal har- 

 mony, a unity of action among these corporations was main- 

 tained. A large quantity of trust certificates were still out- 

 standing; and the dividends, when declared, were at a certain 

 percentage upon these outstanding certificates and at a prop- 

 erly adjusted rate upon the capital stock of the different com- 

 panies, so that the rate of dividends might be considered as if 

 it were entirely on the trust certificates at their former full 

 amount. In order to secure more complete unity and to pro- 

 vide for the claims of smaller holders of trust certificates, the 

 Standard Oil company was organized under the laws of New 

 Jersey in 1899. This corporation, though practically a new 

 organization, was in form a continuation of the old Standard 

 Oil company of New Jersey, with an amended charter and 

 capital increased from $1,000,000 to $110,000,000. This cor- 

 poration was authorized to own the stock of any of the differ- 

 ent corporations connected with the Standard Oil company, 

 and to buy from all parties who own such stock whenever they 

 desired to sell. "The new Standard Oil company of New 

 Jersey," said the industrial commission in 1900, " has recently 

 been formed with the intention of transferring the stock of the 

 different corporations into the stock of the new company, so 

 that, when the transfer is finally made, one single corporation, 

 the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, will own outright 

 the property now owned by the separate companies which are 

 commonly known and mentioned together under the name of 

 the Standard Oil companj^. This combination at present has 



