443 
i89o 
RURAL SPECIAL CROP REPORTS. 
New York. 
Elba, Genesee County, June 21.—It has 
rained since daylight this morning and 
everything Is growing fast. Corn is small for 
this time of the year because it was planted 
two weeks later than usual. While travel¬ 
ing through a greater part of our county 
and the western part of Monroe in the last 
two weeks, I was informed that we shall 
have very short apple and pear crops. Farm¬ 
ers think that partial failure is caused by 
the electric storm that passed over this 
section the first of this month. Siuce then 
the fruit has all or nearly all dropped off. 
The hay crop will be lighter than usual, as 
the grass has not grown very tall. The 
same is the case with every thing else : we 
have had too much rain. Peas and beans 
are being planted by a good many farmers. 
Seed potatoes here have been scarce; but 
the acreage will be about the same as last 
year. Ground is being plowed for buck¬ 
wheat. We shall have no strawberries this 
year, as all the vines were frozen out liist 
winter. Raspberry bushes are loaded with 
fruit. 
Kansas. 
Garnett, Anderson County, June 20.— 
We are having nice growing weather. 
Three good rains helped us last week. 
Wheat is being cut. There will be about 
two thirds of an average crop. Oats are 
short, nut seem to be filling well. Flax 
has made a big growth of straw, and there 
is a prospect of more than an average 
yield. Our corn is small owing to the cold, 
dry spring ; but there is a good stand and 
farmers have a good chance to clean their 
fields of weeds. They are busy trying to 
get up their clover hay. Feeders are still 
buying corn at 25 cents per bushel. 8. E. 
THE GENESIS OF TRUSTS. 
( Concluded .) 
Early in 1882 the Staudard Oil Company 
held the entire stock in eight corporations 
in New York, three in New Jersey, two 
each in Ohio and Massachusetts, and one 
each in Maryland, Kentucky and Minne¬ 
sota. It also held a majority of the stock in 
six other corporations in New York, ihree 
in Pennsylvania, two each in Ohio and 
Iowa, and one each in Missouri aud West 
Virginia, besides a large, if not a control¬ 
ling, interest in seven other smaller cor¬ 
porations aud limited partnerships in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country. Its property 
had reached a value of tens of millions. 
It had triumphed over all its rivals, had 
virtually monopolized the oil-refining busi¬ 
ness of the country, aud was in a position 
to bid defiance to all competition. In the 
career of every conqueror there comes a 
time when he must pause to organize his 
conquests, and to replace an unwieldy aud 
provisional by a convenient aud permanent 
administration. This time had now come 
for the Standard Oil Compauy. To secure 
the permanency of its practical monopoly ; 
to carry on its busiuess in many departs 
rneuts aud regions with unity aud smootn- 
ness of action; to consolidate its vast 
forces and unite their command in a single 
executive, were matters alike of policy aud 
necessity. 
All the world over the corporation had 
hitherto been the moat udvauced means of 
consolidating the powers aud resources of 
many in the hands of a few and of securing 
an assured lease of life so as to perpetuate 
any industrial or commercial enterprise. 
The corporation, however, is the creature 
of the tttate, and the State has an un¬ 
doubted right of making it a useful, law- 
abiding citizen, contributing to the welfare 
of the public, while strictly confined to the 
field of activity assigned to it. Its fran¬ 
chise is granted for a definite purpose aud 
upon condition that in the pursuit of that 
purpose, the private gams of the associa¬ 
tion shall not be inconsistent with the 
public welfare. The attempt to exercise 
powers not granted by the franchise, aud 
the exercise of the powers granted, to the 
public injury, are alike reasons for revok¬ 
ing the charier. In some of the States cor¬ 
porations are forbidden io combine or in¬ 
vest any part of their capital in the stock 
of similar organizations. 
Thus in the career of the Staudard, the 
resources of the corporation appeared to be 
exhausted, while the adoption of some 
other device seemed a necessity. It was 
obviously inexpedient, even if possible, for 
it to consolidate all its properties, irau- 
chises and powers in a siugle corporation 
organized under the laws of one Stale. 
The problem was to develop from many 
corporations and interests in corporations 
a central power, which, while maintaining 
the free play legally aud industrially be¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
longing to them respectively, should bring 
and hold them in silent and rigorous co¬ 
operation and unity. In acquiring stock 
in some of the corporations, the title was 
taken in the name of the trustees, who 
held it for the benefit of the real pur¬ 
chasers. If a part of the property of the 
aggregation of corporations could be ad¬ 
vantageously held by trustees, why could 
not all the shares of stock in all the corpora¬ 
tions be placed in the hands of a small 
number of holders, who might by such 
deposit become the legal owners of the 
entire property, ahd by appropriate word¬ 
ing of the intrument of transfer be clothed 
with all the necessary powers of manage¬ 
ment ? This idea once conceived, the de¬ 
velopment aud perfection of its details de¬ 
manded the widest legal knowledge and 
the acutest legal skill, as well as the keenest 
business foresight and sagacity, but all of 
these were at the command of the Standard. 
Doubtless the toil aud thought of months 
were needed to elaborate and perfect the 
scheme, but the finished product was em¬ 
bodied in the agreement entered into on 
July 2, 1882, creating the “ Standard Oil 
Trust.” There is a consensus of opinion 
that, from a business standpoint, trusts are 
“ masterpieces of modern ingenuity and 
fertility of resource,” “products of the 
highest order of business talent and ex¬ 
ecutive ability, with an organization in. 
tricate, secret and subtle.” Yet, after all, 
the trust Idea has for ages been quite fa¬ 
miliar and simple, and trusts have in all 
times been utilized for the protection of the 
estates of infants, imbeciles and even of the 
dead, and for various other fiduciary pur¬ 
poses. The novelty lay in applying the 
principle underlying them to the formation 
of the most stupendous business combin¬ 
ations of all the ages. 
There is room here for only a brief out¬ 
line of the elaborate agreement, and this is 
condensed from the writings of Ex-Con¬ 
gressman W. L. Wilson, who has thor¬ 
oughly studied the subject, and to whom 
all who have recently treated of it are not 
a little indebted. The plan of organization 
provided for the formation in each State 
and Territory of a corporation to be known 
as the “ Standard Oil Company,” of such 
State or Territory. This was to be vested 
with all the powers necessary for dealing 
in petroleum products in all their forms 
and accessories, and much larger powers 
might be secured. This was to be done by 
obtaining new charters or using existing 
ones if they granted powers sufficiently 
ample. To the Standard Company of each 
State were to be transferred all the proper¬ 
ties, moneys, and business of all the cor¬ 
porations in that State the entire stock of 
which was owned by the parties to the 
agreement, and the Company’s shares of 
stock were to be issued in payment there¬ 
for. These shares of stock were then to be 
transferred to nine trustees, named in the 
agreement, who, in return, were to issue 
certificates of stock in the “ Standard Oil 
Trust,” each of the par value of $100, to the 
former owners of stock in the several 
Standard Oil Companies, according to 
their respective quotas of such stock. 
As corporations in some States are not per¬ 
mitted to own stock in other corporations, 
parties to the agreement who owned a part 
of the stock of certain corporations, were 
not to transfer that stock to the Standard 
Oil Companies of their respective States, 
but directly to the trustees, who, in return, 
were either to issue trust certificates to them 
therefor, or to proceed to acquire the re¬ 
mainder of the stock in any of such com¬ 
panies, and assign all to the Standard Oil 
Company of the proper State, to be dealt 
with as above described. Thus the nine 
trustees were to become owners, either 
through the medium of the various Stand¬ 
ard Oil Companies or directly, of all the 
property and powers belonging to all the 
corporations, partnerships aud individuals 
who became parties to the agreement, and 
in consideration therefor were to issue 
trust certificates to the persons entitled 
thereto. All the interests of the gigantic 
combination were to be confided absolutely 
to these niue magnates, who were to be re¬ 
sponsible to nobody, and to conduct the 
multifarious busiuess operations of the 
various organizations, secretly and solely 
according to the promptings of their own 
judgment or interests. 
The trustees were divided into three 
classes, each class to hold office for three 
years, and were to be chosen, as vacancies 
occurred, by the holders of certificates at 
their annual meetings. They were to have 
general supervision over the affairs of all 
the Standard Oil Companies, aud as far as 
possible over the other companies any por¬ 
tion of whose stock was held by them. 
They were to elect directors and officers of 
all the companies managed in the interest 
of the holders of trust certificates. As 
owners of all the stock of some of 
the companies and of part of the stock 
of others, they were to receive all dividends 
on such stocks, and out of such receipts, 
pay dividends to the holders of trust certi¬ 
ficates. They were also authorized to de¬ 
clare stock dividends when the value of 
their property justified such a step, and to 
acquire stocks and bonds of other corpora¬ 
tions, or to admit others to the agreement 
entered into by the original parties. They 
could elect themselves officers of the 
various companies and were to receive 
salaries—the president §30,000 and each of 
the eight others $25,000 per year. 
Thus the agreement centralized in the 
hands of the nine trustees the entire 
ownership and control of all the property 
and business of the combination. It 
evolved from the sevetal Standard Oil 
Companies, the “Standard Oil Trust,” 
which was neither a company nor a corpora¬ 
tion, but a paramount directory, composed 
of nine trustees with absolute power. The 
shareholders had irrevocably parted with 
the stock in their respective companies, 
and stood on a common level as holders of 
trust certificates. None of them had any 
special interest in any corporation of which 
he had been a stockholder. Its busiuess 
might be curtailed or suspended, and the 
buildings sold or dismantled without 
affecting him a whit more than any other 
certificate holder. Dividends were to be 
distributed to all, share and share alike, 
out of a common purse. The trustees 
themselves were, and always have been, 
the owners of a great majority of the trust 
certificates, and can thus re-elect them¬ 
selves indefinitely. They form the trust, 
and all pecuniarily interested in the organ¬ 
ization must trust implicitly to them. 
Secrecy has always been a cardinal prin¬ 
ciple with the Standard Oil Trust. All its 
multitudinous operations are conducted 
with the utmost possible privacy, and, as a 
rule, it is only after some gigantic negotia¬ 
tion has been successfully consummated, 
that the bare results become known to the 
general public. Nor are the holders of 
trust certificates favored with any more 
information with regard to the work of the 
mighty little cabal of nine magnates. 
They accept thankfully, or otherwise, the 
generous dividends paid periodically; but 
have no means of ascertaining how they 
have been made, or whether they are really 
as large as the income gf the trust would 
justify. They put their money into a 
“ blind pool,” and have to trust blindly to 
the honesty and ability of the trustees for 
satisfactory returns. Hitherto, however, 
no reasonable expectation has been disap¬ 
pointed. The chief officials of the organi¬ 
zation have repeatedly given absolute re¬ 
fusals to questions put to them by legisla¬ 
tive committees with regard to its inner 
workings and management. The informa¬ 
tion that has been collected has been given 
in driblets under oath and stress of pitiless 
cross-examination. Even the capitaliza¬ 
tion of the trust is a matter of guess, 
work. It is known to be considerably over 
$100,000,000, and believed to be as much as 
$150,000,000, but there is no certainty with 
regard to it. 
Under the provision authorizing the trus¬ 
tees to acquire stocks and bonds of other cor¬ 
porations, it has absorbed a large number 
of these, and secured a powerful or con¬ 
trolling interest in others. It is supposed 
to have a great if not a dominant influence 
in the Cotton seed Oil Trust, and large in¬ 
vestments iu various corporations entirely 
iudependent of the oil business. Until a few 
years ago it had not been au oil producer; 
but of late it has become the largest pro¬ 
ducer in the country, and it is certain that 
within a few years its monopoly of petro¬ 
leum production will be as complete as its 
monopoly of oil redoing is at present. It has 
already secured nearly a complete monopoly 
of the Uhio oil fields, and, less than a month 
ago, absorbed four of the largest oil com¬ 
panies located in Pennsylvania aud West 
Virginia, with an aggregate capitalization 
of $3,000,000. Should the strong arm of the 
law fail to check the career of this mon¬ 
strous octopus, it is not improbable that 
it will, ere long, inclose in its ever-extend¬ 
ing coils many of the industries in which 
farmers are specially interested. It is re¬ 
ported to have already invested heavily in 
some of the cattle syndicates. With un¬ 
limited capital and an unscrupulous 
fashion of using it for rapid self-enrich¬ 
ment, utterly regardless of the rights of 
those who may stand in its way, its partic¬ 
ipation in any industry must be a curse to 
those already engaged in it. 
PRINCIPAL 
-AND- 
INTEREST 
IN THESE! BOOKS 
FOR RURAL READERS. 
HORTICULTURIST’S RULE BOOK-By 
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THE ANNALS OF HORTICULTURE-For 
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