The blackmailing cases of which the Standard Oil Company complain are a natural result of its own practices. Men going into an independent refining business have for years been accustomed to say: “Well, if they won’t let us alone, we’ll make them pay a good price.” The Standard complains that such men build simply to sell out. There may be cases of this. Probably there are, though the writer has no absolute proof of any such. Certainly there is no satisfactory proof that the refinery in the famous Buffalo case was built to sell, though that it was offered for sale when the opposition of the Everests, the managers of the Standard concern, had become so serious as later to be stamped as criminal by judge and jury, there is no doubt. Certainly nothing was shown to have been done or said by Mr. Matthews, the owner of the concern which the Standard was fighting, which might not have been expected from a man who had met the kind of opposition he had from the time he went into business.
The truth is, blackmail and every other business vice is the natural result of the peculiar business practices of the Standard. If business is to be treated as warfare and not as a peaceful pursuit, as they have persisted in treating it, they cannot expect the men they are fighting to lie down and die without a struggle. If they get special privileges they must expect their competitors to struggle to get them. If they will find it more profitable to buy out a refinery than to let it live, they must expect the owner to get an extortionate price if he can. And when they complain of these practices and call them blackmail, they show thin sporting blood. They must not expect to monopolise hard dealings, if they do oil.
These are considerations of the ethical effect of such business practices on those outside and in competition. As for those within the organisation there is one obvious effect worth noting. The Standard men as a body have nothing to do with public affairs, except as it is necessary to manipulate them for the “good of the oil business.” The notion that the business man must not appear in politics and religion save as a “stand-patter”—not even as a thinking, aggressive force—is demoralising, intellectually and morally. Ever since 1872 the organisation has appeared in politics only to oppose legislation obviously for the public good. At that time the oil industry was young, only twelve years old, and it was suffering from too rapid growth, from speculation, from rapacity of railroads, but it was struggling manfully with all these questions. The question of railroad discriminations and extortions was one of the “live questions” of the country. The oil men as a mass were allied against it. The theory that the railroad was a public servant bound by the spirit of its charter to treat all shippers alike, that fair play demanded open equal rates to all, was generally held in the oil country at the time Mr. Rockefeller and his friends sprung the South Improvement Company. One has only to read the oil journals at the time of the Oil War of 1872 to see how seriously all phases of the transportation question were considered. The country was a unit against the rebate system. Agreements were signed with the railroads that all rates henceforth should be equal. The signatures were not on before Mr. Rockefeller had a rebate, and gradually others got them until the Standard had won the advantages it expected the South Improvement Company to give it. From that time to this Mr. Rockefeller has had to fight the best sentiment of the oil country and of the country at large as to what is for the public good. He and his colleagues kept a strong alliance in Washington fighting the Interstate Commerce Bill from the time the first one was introduced in 1876 until the final passage in 1887. Every measure looking to the freedom and equalisation of transportation has met his opposition, as have bills for giving greater publicity to the operations of corporations. In many of the great state Legislatures one of the first persons to be pointed out to a visitor is the Standard Oil lobbyist. Now, no one can dispute the right of the Standard Oil Company to express its opinions on proposed legislation. It has the same right to do this as all the rest of the world. It is only the character of its opposition which is open to criticism, the fact that it is always fighting measures which equalise privileges and which make it more necessary for men to start fair and play fair in doing business.
Of course the effect of directly practising many of their methods is obvious. For example, take the whole system of keeping track of independent business. There are practices required which corrupt every man who has a hand in them. One of the most deplorable things about it is that most of the work is done by youngsters. The freight clerk who reports the independent oil shipments for a fee of five or ten dollars a month is probably a young man, learning his first lessons in corporate morality. If he happens to sit in Mr. Rockefeller’s church on Sundays, through what sort of a haze will he receive the teachings? There is something alarming to those who believe that commerce should be a peaceful pursuit, and who believe that the moral law holds good throughout the entire range of human relations, in knowing that so large a body of young men in this country are consciously or unconsciously growing up with the idea that business is war and that morals have nothing to do with its practice.
And what are we going to do about it? for it is our business. We, the people of the United States, and nobody else, must cure whatever is wrong in the industrial situation, typified by this narrative of the growth of the Standard Oil Company. That our first task is to secure free and equal transportation privileges by rail, pipe and waterway is evident. It is not an easy matter. It is one which may require operations which will seem severe; but the whole system of discrimination has been nothing but violence, and those who have profited by it cannot complain if the curing of the evils they have wrought bring hardship in turn on them. At all events, until the transportation matter is settled, and settled right, the monopolistic trust will be with us, a leech on our pockets, a barrier to our free efforts.
As for the ethical side, there is no cure but in an increasing scorn of unfair play—an increasing sense that a thing won by breaking the rules of the game is not worth the winning. When the business man who fights to secure special privileges, to crowd his competitor off the track by other than fair competitive methods, receives the same summary disdainful ostracism by his fellows that the doctor or lawyer who is “unprofessional,” the athlete who abuses the rules, receives, we shall have gone a long way toward making commerce a fit pursuit for our young men.
THE END
APPENDIX
NUMBER 37 (See page [2004])
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION OF THE TIDEWATER PIPE LINE
Incorporation Tidewater Pipe Company, Limited, of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Recorded November 22, 1878. William F. Dickson, Recorder.
The undersigned persons, to wit: Byron David Benson, Robert Emmet Hopkins, Andrew Worton Perrin, Alanson Ashford Sumner, David Boyd Stewart, David McKelvy, Samuel Queen Brown, Adam Clark Hawkins, Willis Booth Benedict, Marcus Brownson, William Henry Nicholson, Calvin Nathaniel Payne, John Hahn Dilks, Hascal Ledger Taylor, William Henry Conley, Thomas Benton Riter, Clark Isaac Hayes, Gershom Hyde, James Henry Caldwell, George Lawrence Benton, George Hill Graham, Elisha Gilbert Patterson, Benjamin Bakewell Campbell, Delos Olcott Wickham, Joseph Henry Simmonds, Lewis Henry Smith, desire to form a partnership association, pursuant to the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, entitled, “An Act, authorising the formation of partnership association in which the capital subscribed shall alone be responsible for the debts of the association except under certain circumstances,” approved the second day of June, A.D. 1874, and the several supplements thereto for the purpose of conducting a legal business or occupation, within the United States or elsewhere, whose principal office or place of business shall be established and maintained within the state of Pennsylvania, by subscribing and contributing capital thereto, which capital shall alone be liable for the debts of such association, and to that end sign and acknowledge the following statement:
Full names of the persons desiring to form such association are: Byron David Benson, Robert Emmet Hopkins, Andrew Worton Perrin, Alanson Ashford Sumner, David Boyd Stewart, David McKelvy, Samuel Queen Brown, Adam Clark Hawkins, Willis Booth Benedict, Marcus Brownson, William Henry Nicholson, Calvin Nathaniel Payne, John Hahn Dilks, Hascal Ledger Taylor, William Henry Conley, Thomas Benton Riter, Clark Isaac Hayes, Gershom Clark Hyde, James Henry Caldwell, George Lawrence Benton, George Hill Graham, Elisha Gilbert Patterson, Benjamin Bakewell Campbell, Delos Olcott Wickham, Joseph Henry Simmonds, Lewis Henry Smith.
The amount of capital of said association subscribed for by each is as follows, to wit:
Said Byron David Benson has subscribed for $100,300 of the capital of said association; the said Robert Emmet Hopkins has subscribed for $72,400 of the capital of said association; said Andrew Worton Perrin has subscribed for $24,700 of the capital of said association; said David Boyd Stewart has subscribed for $16,800 of the capital of said association; said David McKelvy has subscribed for $72,500 of the capital of said association; said Samuel Queen Brown has subscribed for $25,000 of the capital of said association; said Adam Clark Hawkins has subscribed for $6,000 of the capital of said association; said Willis Booth Benedict has subscribed for $5,000 of the capital of said association; said Marcus Brownson has subscribed for $10,000 of the capital of said association; said William Henry Nicholson has subscribed for $5,000 of the capital of said association; said Calvin Nathaniel Payne has subscribed for $5,000 of the capital of said association; said John Hahn Dilks has subscribed $82,300 of the capital of said association; said Hascal Ledger Taylor has subscribed for $50,000 of the capital of said association; said William Henry Conley has subscribed for $2,500 of the capital of said association; said Thomas Benton Riter has subscribed for $2,500 of the capital of said association; said Clark Isaac Hayes has subscribed for $10,000 of the capital of said association; said Gershom Clark Hyde has subscribed for $1,000 of the capital of said association; said James Henry Caldwell has subscribed for $2,500 of the capital of said association; said George Lawrence Benton has subscribed for $1,000 of the capital of said association; said George Hill Graham has subscribed for $1,000 of the capital of said association; said Elisha Gilbert Patterson has subscribed for $5,000 of the capital of said association; said Benjamin Bakewell Campbell has subscribed for $10,000 of the capital of said association; said Delos Olcott Wickham has subscribed for $2,500 of the capital of said association; said Joseph Henry Simmonds has subscribed for $1,000 of the capital of said association; said Lewis Henry Smith has subscribed for $1,000 of the capital of said association.
Second.—The total amount of the capital of the said association is $625,000, and said capital shall be paid at the times and in the manner following, to wit: Twenty-five per cent. thereof on the second day of December, A.D. 1878; twenty-five per cent. thereof on the second day of January, A.D. 1879; twenty-five per cent. thereof on the first day of February, A.D. 1879, and the balance of twenty-five per cent. thereof the third day of March, A.D. 1879. The whole of said capital shall be paid in lawful money to the treasurer of said association at the principal office or place of business of said association at Titusville, Pennsylvania.
Third.—The character of the business to be conducted by said association is the production, shipping, refining, storing, insuring, buying and selling of petroleum and its products, and the acquisitions, manufacture and management of such property, real, personal and mixed, as may be deemed necessary or advisable to use in such business or in connection therewith. The location of the business to be conducted by said association is at the city of Titusville, in the county of Crawford, and state of Pennsylvania, where the principal office or place of business of said association is established and shall be maintained.
Fourth.—The name of the said association is the Tidewater Pipe Company (Limited).
Fifth.—The contemplated duration of said association is twenty years from the date of this statement.
Sixth.—The names of the officers of said association selected in conformity with the provisions of said act are as follows:
The managers of said association so elected are: Byron David Benson, Hascal Ledger Taylor, Alanson Ashford Sumner, Robert Emmet Hopkins, and John Hahn Dilks, of whom said Byron David Benson is so selected chairman of said association; said Robert Emmet Hopkins is so selected treasurer of said association; and said Alanson Ashford Sumner is so selected secretary of said association.
In Witness Whereof, the persons named in this statement have hereunto severally signed their names, this thirteenth day of November, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight:
Elisha Gilbert Patterson, Byron David Benson, Marcus Brownson, Hascal Ledger Taylor, George Lawrence Benton, Alanson Ashford Sumner, Delos Olcott Wickham, David Mckelvy, Adam Clark Hawkins, David Boyd Stewart, John Hahn Dilks, George Hill Graham, William Henry Nicholson, Joseph Henry Simmonds, Gershom Clark Hyde, Lewis Henry Smith, Willis Booth Benedict, Benjamin Bakewell Campbell, William Henry Conley, Calvin Nathaniel Payne, Thomas Benton Riter, James Henry Caldwell, Clark Isaac Hayes, Andrew Norton Perrin, Samuel Queen Brown, Robert Emmet Hopkins.