WILLIAM C. SCOFIELD
Senior member of the firm of Scofield, Schurmer and Teagle, of Cleveland. Plaintiff in important suits against Lake Shore Railroad for freight discriminations.
DANIEL SCHURMER
Associate of Mr. Scofield and Mr. Teagle in the war on railroad rebates which the firm waged for nearly twenty years.
JOHN TEAGLE
Independent refiner of Cleveland, Ohio, prominent in struggle against freight discriminations by the railroads.
CHARLES B. MATTHEWS
Independent refiner of Buffalo. Plaintiff in “Buffalo case,” where members of the Standard Oil Company were indicted for conspiracy.
Mr. Rockefeller’s reply was a prayer for an injunction against the members of the firm, restraining them individually and collectively “from distilling at their said works at Cleveland, Ohio, more than 85,000 barrels of crude petroleum of forty-two gallons each in every year, and also from distilling any more than 42,500 barrels of crude petroleum of forty-two gallons each, each and every six months, and also from distilling any more crude petroleum until the expiration of six months from and after July 20, 1880, and also from directly and indirectly engaging in or being concerned in any business connected with petroleum or any of its products except in connection with the plaintiff under their said agreement, and that on the final hearing of this case the said defendants may in like manner be restrained and enjoined from doing any of said acts until the expiration of said agreement, and for such other and further relief in the premises as equity can give.” In this petition, really remarkable for its unconsciousness of what seems obvious—that the agreement was preposterous and void because confessedly in restraint of trade—the terms of the joint adventure are renewed in a way to illustrate admirably the sort of tactics with refiners which, at this time, was giving Mr. Rockefeller his extraordinary power over the price of oil.[[98]]
Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle did not hesitate to take up the gauntlet, and a remarkable defence they made. In their answer they declared the so-called agreement had at all times been “utterly void and of no effect as being by its terms in restraint of trade and against public policy.” They declared that the Standard Oil Company had never kept the terms of the agreement, that it had intentionally withheld the benefits of the advantages it enjoyed in freight contracts, and that it now was pumping crude oil from the Oil Regions to Cleveland at a cost of about twelve cents a barrel and charging them (Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle) twenty cents. They denied that the Standard had sustained any damage through them, but claimed that their business had been carried on at a large profit. “There is such a large margin between the price of crude oil and refined,” declared the defendants, “that the manufacture and sale of refined oil is attended with large profit; it is impossible to supply the demand of the public for oil if the business and refineries of both plaintiff and defendant are carried on and run to their full capacities, and if the business of the defendants were stopped, as prayed for by the plaintiff, it would result in a still higher price for refined oil and the establishment of more perfect monopoly in the manufacture and sale of the same by plaintiff.” To establish such a monopoly, the defendants went on to declare, had been the sole object of the Standard Oil Company in making this contract with them, and similar ones with other firms, to establish a monopoly and so maintain unnaturally high prices,[[99]] and certainly Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle knew whereof they swore, for they had shared in the spoils of the winter of 1876 and 1877, and at this very period, October, 1880, they were witnessing an attempt to repeat the coup.