102 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



The adverse conditions under which this 

 plant flourishes recalls some lines from Byron: 

 "Existence may be borne, and the deep root 

 Of life and sufferance malie its firm abode 

 In bare and desolate bosoms :" 

 "But from their nature will the *tannen grow 

 Loftiest on loftiest and least shelter'd rocks, 

 Rooted in barrenness, where ^pught below 

 Of soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocks 

 Of eddying storms; yet springs the trunk, and mockb 

 The howling tempest, till its height and frame 

 Are worthy of the mountains from whose blocks 

 Of bleak, gray granite, into life it came. 

 And grew a giant tree;-the mind may grow the same." 

 L.D.Z. 



Essays. 



fTHE FREE PIPE LINE. 



No industry of the State can be crippled 

 ■without all portions of the State being unfa- 

 vorably affected. It is to the interest of every 

 part of the State that every other part should 

 be thriving and prosperous. 



Oil is thp principal product of Northwestern 

 Pennsylvana, and there is not a substantial 

 reason to be given why its production should 

 not be encouraged and properly protected. 

 The business has become very much oppressed 

 by that powerful corporation known as the 

 Standard Oil Company, monopolizing the en- 

 tire business and using its power to crush out 

 individuals who possess enough thrift and en- 

 terprise to embark in the oil business. Legis- 

 lation has been asked for by tliose people 

 attain and again; but has as often been with- 

 held through the influence of the Standard 

 Oil Company, and its first cousins— the rail- 

 road corporations. One of these measures for 

 their relief before the Legislature at its last 

 session was a bill giving others the right to 

 organize companies, and granting them tlie 

 right of way to lay pipe lines and vest them 

 with the right of " eminent domain " so far as 

 to enable them to cross the Standard lines, 

 which 'they cannot now do on account of the 

 fact that the Standard Oil Company has to- 

 day exclusive right of way, and no other lines 

 can belaid any considerable distance without 

 at some point crossing its lines. This is tlie 

 measure known as House bill No. 77, more 

 popularly known as the Free Pipe Line bill. 

 In the northwestern part of the State, princi- 

 pally in the counties of Erie, Crawford, "War- 

 ren, McKean, Elk, Forest, Clarion, Venango, 

 Butler and Armstrong, there are thousands of 

 miles of pipe lines in daily use. Some of these 

 pipe lines run through agricultural districts. 

 It is from their effect upon the farms through 

 which they pass that can best judge as to the 

 damage that would likely be done to land and 

 property in Lancaster county in case a free 

 pipe-line were to run through it. In our part 

 of the State but few people have ever seen an 

 oil pipe-line and consequently but a small pro 

 portion of our people thoroughly understand 

 its workings. The best place to become ac- 

 quainted with the workings of these pipe-lines 

 is in the localities througli which they pass. 

 I have been to the oil regions for the express 

 purpose of obtaining information on this sub- 

 ject, and from what I could learn the reports 



•Tannen is tlie plural of tanne, a .ipecies of fir peculiar 

 to the Alps. 



tRead before the Lancaster County Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Society, July 11th, 1881, by Hon. John H. 

 Landis. 



circulated about the damage they do is entirely 

 false and without foundation. 



A pipe-line may burst and in that way may 

 do damage to property, but an occurrence of 

 this kind is very rare even in the oil region. 



Representative Hulings, of Venango, who 

 has been engaged in the oil business for the 

 last thirteen years, says: "I have known 

 cases where pipe-lines have burst, yet I say 

 that it is very rare indeed, and J never knew a 

 case where a farmer's crops, houses or out- 

 buildings were in anywise injured whatever." 

 Wliat has caused pipe-hnes to burst was their 

 exposure to the heat and cold, which has a 

 tendency to expand and contract the iron and 

 thus to loosen the pipe at the joints. These 

 pipes are mostly on the surface of the ground 

 and are uncovered. Had the bill of last ses- 

 sion been passed this danger would have been 

 suflBciently well guarded against by one of its 

 provisions, which required the pipe to be cov- 

 ered at least twenty-four inches, so as to pre- 

 vent action of the frost. Under the free pipe- 

 line bill this objection on the part of the 

 farmer would have been removed. Without 

 such a bill being enacted into a law the Stan- 

 dard Oil Company may run its pipe from one 

 end of our county to the other, and there is no 

 law which compels them to cover their pipe 

 twenty-four inches. A pipe-line buried that 

 depth would be no obstruction for plowing 

 and tilling the soil. The pipe-lines running 

 from the oil fields to Cleveland and to Buf- 

 falo are also covered and they do not give the 

 least trouble : to the farmers through whose 

 farms they pass. The line running from the 

 oil fields to Cleveland, Ohio, rims through two 

 farms owned by Representative Braham, of 

 Butler county, an old farmer, who is a member 

 of the present Legislature; a man of sterling 

 integrity and whose represehtations are thor- 

 oughly reliable and who knows what he is 

 talking about when he tells how pipe-lines 

 affect the farming interests. Mr. Braham 

 told me that he had neither seen it put there 

 nor had no one told him that it was there, he 

 to-day would be unacquainted with the fact 

 that a pipe-line now runs through his farm. 

 He furthermore says that crops grow fully as 

 well on the ground with which these pipes are 

 covered as anywhere else upon his farm, and 

 that in his opinion pipe-lines laid through 

 farming lands, if the pipe are buried, do not 

 do the slightest damage to the land. Otlier 

 farmers tell me substantially the same. 

 Among the representatives in the Legislature 

 from the oil regions there are about half a 

 dozen practical farmers, every one of whom 

 was strongly in favor of the passage of the 

 Free Pipe Linebill. 



The mere fact that a few accidents have 

 occurred is a flimsy excuse for the defeat of a 

 measure involving an all-important principle 

 and relieving an oppressed people from bur- 

 dens almost too grievous to be borne. An ac- 

 cident may occur on a railroad, yet that would 

 not be an adequate reason why railroads 

 should not be built. Accidents occasionally 

 happen to sewers or water pipes, yet how lame 

 a reason that would be to advance for not lay- 

 ing any more sewers or water pipe. Gas 

 pipes, too, have been known to do damage, 

 but that would be an insufficient reason to in- 

 duce our cities to dispense with their gas ligfit. 



An additional fact may be stated, and that 



is that two pipe-lines have for quite a long 

 while been laid through New York city. This 

 pipe-line passes through the finest portion of 

 that great metropolis. It even runs through 

 Central Park, New York city. Think of it— 

 this very day somewhere between 25,000 and 

 30,000 barrels of oil are forced through the 

 very heart of New York city, through the 

 beautiful Central Park in that city, through 

 these pipe-lines, across the East river to Hun- 

 ter's I'oint. Have you ever heard of a cent's 

 worth of damage .done there ? 



We hnve also been told that the streams wih 

 be polluted and the fish will be killed. This 

 is anolhfr story manufactured for the pui^pose 

 of creating a false impression upon the minds 

 of the people and to scare timid, weak-kneed 

 Representatives into voting against the "Pipe 

 Lino Bill. " In the streams of the northwest- 

 ern counties there are some of the finest trout 

 to be found anywhere, yet those streams flow 

 through numerous localities whicli are fairly 

 covered with oil derricks. The oil that does • 

 get on to the- stream remains on the top and: 

 does not mix with the water and does not ' 

 affect the fish or the purity of the water un- 

 derneath. The Allegheny river is an ex- 

 ample. I have repeatedly seen the Allegheny 

 literally covered with oil and was told it Had ■ 

 been so for years, yet there were plenty of fish 

 in the Allegheny until recently. Since the re- 

 fuse from the large oil refineries above Pitts- 

 burg has found its way into the river the acid; 

 and refuse matter has a fatal effect upon the ^ 

 fish. These pipe-lines are built especially- 

 strong across streams so as to prevent logs, 

 cakes of ice, &c., in case of a freshet, from af- 

 fecting the joints by striking against the pipe. 

 There is not the slightest likelihood of its af- 

 fecting the finny tribe in our streams were a- 

 free pipe cross to them. These stories about' 

 pipe-lines have been set afloat by paid agents 

 of the " Standard Oil Company," which gigan- 

 tic monopoly would strain every nerve and 

 use every power to retain its hold upon the , 

 State.' This monster has this commonwealth 

 by the throat to-day to strangle its efforts to 

 collect revenues amounting to millions which 

 this corporation refuses to pay into the peo- 

 ple's treasury. 



A number of reports, too, were studiously 

 circulated during the last session of the Legis- 

 lature, relative to damage alleged to have 

 been done to property and lands along the 

 Hepburn pipe line running from the oil re- 

 gions through Southern New York to Hun- 

 ter's I'oint, N. Y. It was merely the off- 

 spring of the "Standard Oil Company," got- 

 ten up purposely to blind and mislead the 

 public into an unjust opposition to a measure 

 that is right and proper ; a measure giving to 

 the individual oil producer the same privileges 

 and the same rights to-day exercised and en- 

 joyed exclusively by the Standard Oil Compa- 

 ny ; a measure that must be engrafted upon 

 our statute books to teach these powerful cor- 

 porations the limit of their corporate rights 

 and to guard the people against the threatening 

 danger of these corporate powers. It is very 

 strange that it is necessary to go to New York 

 State for information on the workings of free 

 pipe lines when wei have thousands of miles 

 of them in our own State. It is strikingly 

 strange that the people of the western part of 

 our own Pennsylvania, who are as anxious to 



