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The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 45
Jtfiit "" ' i-n tii, i Mi- ' I
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, president of the
Standard Oil company, was, on the witness
stand recently in the city of ,Kew York. , He
appeared ns a witness for the defense in the. gov
ernment's suit to dissolve the Standard Oil com
pany. The proceedings wero held before Judge
Franklin Ferris referee. Rockefeller was ex
amined for two days by John G. Milburn, attor
ney for the Standard Oil company. He said he
began in the oil business in Cleveland' in I860
or 18 G2, he could not remember the exact date.
With a capital of only $4,000 he continued for
ten years When he laid the foundation, for the
great trust of which he is now, the, head. lie
denied that he had any connection with the riots
and crimes attributed to the Standard, .Oil trust
'by oil historians. Ho admitted .that the fail
road companies had given the Stantard"tlOil trust
rebates. '
O
ON ,'THB THIRD day of John D. Rockefeller's
' testimony the oil king was cr,oss7exdniined
by the government counsel,, Frank B. Kellogg.
Mr. Rockefeller stated that, the Standard Oil
,paid, dividends in 1007 amounting to, $.40,000,-
0,0.0. an.d that it had earned as much, more, but
that' 'tyis was added to the company's, ;sur plus.
Mrn Kellogg. stated that the company's' surplus
now amounts to $300,000,000. Mr.'&eUo.gg
addd that during" the last year the, Standard
had earned half a billion dollars, In-his testi
njonui ,, Rockefeller said -that: the business was
"hazardous." Mr. Kellogg asked ife rpgard--ed
as "hazardous" a business that on.au origi
nal Investment of $07,000,000 paid dividends
amounting to $591,000,000 and had.lqft a sur
plus of $300,000,000. Mr, Rockefeller replied
that he did not consider the, amount -.of', money
made, to determine whether the business was
hazardous or not. He .admitted that; he .. had
heard .that the Pennsylvania railroad paiiftithe
Standard a rebate of twenty cents on each bar
rel of oil and he said that he may have known
of the fact at the time but that he had had
nothing to do with the contract."
YNB .STORY. ,-of, the hearing,. is told;.byrtthe
V , Associated' . press . in this. , , way: , "Mr.
Rockefeller asked bno ot the ,a'rtistV-ho h'ad
been sketching liim to let him ;sea Oio. picture.
'I wish I had your talent,', said the richest mail
in the world, gazing earnestly at the .portrait
of himself. 'I wish I had yours,' quickly re
sponded, the artist. Mr. Rockefeller laughed
'heartily and extended his hand, which the artist
.8htioti,.t'he Standard Oil man saying: ' 'We ought
xo pooi issues. "
O-
TTN HIS TESTIMONY John D. Rockefeller said
JL that in all its dealings' with its rivals the
Standard Oil trust had treated them "kindly but
fairly." From testimony given under oath in
various proceedings, the New York World com
piles a statement of the "kind" and "fair" way
in which the great oil trust has treated its
rivals. For instance: "The South Improve
ment company got a rebate from the railroads,
not only on its own oil, but also on the oil
of other shippers transported by the roads, In
one locality the railroads charged all oil ship
pers $1.50 a barrel and turned $1.06 of that
sum over to the South Improvement company.
Under this deal the Standard actually paid 44
cents a barrel freight and its rivals $1.50 "a
barrel. Though the Rockefeller group con
trolled at that time but a small part of the
shipments, they collected as high as $3,500,000
a year from their rivals, through the railroads,
In the shape of freight rebates. As, early as
1875 nearly all the- interior petroleum refineries
had been thus driven out or forced to sell. Ac
cording to the late George Rice, of Marietta,
O., the oil trust ruined him through a 'secret
agreement with the railroads by whjeh the trust
paid 10 cents freight a barrel While ho was
paying 35. The railroads paid 25 cents out of
the 35 to the trust. According tp William O.
Bishop, of San Francisco, the Standard got ah
'emergency' rate; in the. far Wesfc of 90 cents
barrel on' oil, as rigaihst $1.25 paid "by 'its rivals'
Charle'WrtghtorCofcleskill, tf, Y- peddled-oil-
that he bought from the Standard for eight
cents a gallon. When he bought from the in
dependents for, seven cents a gallon, the Stand
ard sent out its own peddler, who distributed
the oil on Wright's route for 5 cents a' gal
lon. The Standard forced the Manhattan Oil
company to sell out by buying iip the visible
supply and boosting the price so that -the rival
tost millions in carrying out its contracts."
i
rpHE MUCH talked-of "labQr conference din
: X ne"v at the White Hpuse has been held,
tho date set being Noyeniber , 17. , The Asso
ciated Press report gave the following' as the
guest list: "From the supreme court there
were Justices Holmes and Moody The cabinet
was 'represented, by Scret'ry James R. Garfield
of the interior department and, formerly cbm
. mis-sioner' of, corporation?, and, Secretary Ospar
S. Straus o the i .department of. commerce and
labor. Others present, were; Representative
Herbert Parsons, Assistant' Secretary4 of State
Bacon, $fajc)'r General Leonard Wood, Inter
state Commerce Commissioner Clarke, Commis
sioner Of Labor Neill, Forester Gilford )?inchot,
Henry L'. Sthispn, tyhited, States attorney;', t. V.
Powderly, forrherly. at the "Wad of the Knights
of Labor; WaVren S, tbrie grad 'chief ,of the
Brotherhood Of Lqcpmbt'fyb Engineers; John J.
Haimahari, grand master pL.the Brotherhood of
LocOmotlye Firemen!; Ws. ,S. Carter, grand, sec
retary and. treasurer of the Brptherhopd of Lo
comotive firemen; p. H. Mprrissey, grand mas
ter of thef,Rattwayr Trainmen;; T. J. Dpban, gen
eral secretary-treasurer, tldf, ".the". International
Brotherhood' o.f Steam Shovel and Dredgemien;
A. L. Faulkner, president pi the National Win
dow ..Glass Workers; David', -Klackay, president
of the Building Trades' .organization; John T.
Towers, secretary-treasurer of the . New Xork
State Council Of Carpenters; George W. Xlger,
attorney for labor u'nibiid and writer on labor
subjects; Edward J. Gavegan, attorney for
labor unions; Robert P. Bell, attorney for iabor
unions, New York; James Bronson Reynolds
and Charles H, ScHerrill, attorneys; Dr. Lyman
Abbott of the. Outlook, Lawrence S. Abbott of
the Outlook' and Ernest H. Abbott of the Out
look." '
O
OF THE LABOR leaders present, four, Stone
of the Engineers, Hannahan and Carter
of the Firemen, and Mpriisey of the Trainmen,
represent organizations tjiat. are. not affiliated
with theAmqri9an Federation of. Labor. , It has
been a long time gince Mr. Powderly, who has
held a government position for a decade, was
considered in any sense a ''labor leader." Dplan
is the general secretary-treasurer of the union
which admitted William H. Taft to member
ship because of his help to the comparatively
few dredgemen engaged upon the Panama
canal. Commissioner Clarice Is a member of
the Order of Railway Conductors, which organ
ization is not affiliated, with the American Fed
eration of Labor, The attorneys present out
numbered the labor men present, and the at
torneys and Outlook editors together formed a
majority of the "conference." The fact that
this "conference" should have been called at a
date when the convention of the American Fed
eration of Labor was in session 1,500 miles from
Washington has given rise, to considerable com
ment. Samuel Gompers, president of the Fed
eration was not invited to the dinner, and this
caused considerable discussion among the dele
gates to the Federation convention at Denver
John Mitchell of the Mine Worlds James M
Lynch of the printers, Frank SKniSSSte
of tho Federation, and ether well known and
success ul labor leaders were cons SSs ?y
their absence from tho White House function.
take, no matter how heated was the controversy
with him during the campaign,, and the asso
ciates of the excluded, labor leader will probably
decline to attend. If it was intended to be a
genuine conference with labor leaders Mr
Gompers should hav.e been invited. If it was
Intended merely to square himself with union
labor, a slight to the foremost labor leader of
the country was at the least ill advised. The
president had not sufficiently cooled off from the
heat of the battlp to use good judgment in
such a- matter, or, on the assumption that Loeb
tried to tell him what was right, to accept ad
vice. Impulse is not as unerring as calmly con
sidered judgment, and in that-respect there will
be a change for. the better at the, White House
next March."
T'-IE NEW YORK Evening Post, which under
, no stretch of the imagination could be con
sistently charged with favoring trades unionism,
comments thus on the "snub" of Gompers:
"That' the president is nettled by the attitude of
the Gompers-Bryah labor leader' appears clearly
from Mr. Lodb's latest bulletin frbhi the White
House. The president, it seeing, never Intended
tp, ask all the prominent labprv leaders, only
six or eight and, above all the public will
please take notice that this is1 in ho sense to
as' to who should or! should not' be Invited to
dinner by the president.' Then why dignify the
discussion' by till' this pother? 'The truth is that
the president is angry because'' John Mitchell,
James Dhn'can, and .Daniel J.,Keeie have de
clined to din; at'th.e White HoUseby rpyal com
mand. Mr. Roosevelt perceives1 that the whole
dinner has come to be regarded as a blow at
Mr. Gompers' control of the Federation of La
bor. 'Labor insists, too, that 'if the president
wishes to plot for labor's welfare, he should
plot through the president and other leaders
of the Federation The fundamental principle
of union labor is working through the union;
It id the same principle of being regular that
Mr. Roosevelt has illustrated In politics and
preached all his life. Why should he complain
if the chalice is now commendeftto his own
lips?"
THE MILWAUKEE Sentinel, republican,
which strenuously denounced Gompers and
his allies for what it called their effort to "de
liver tlie labor vote," expresses the candid opin
ion that Gompers has turned the tables on the
president. The Sentinel says: "We fully ex
pected, and in fact predicted, that the omission
of Sam Gompers' name from the invitations of
those bidden to the White house 'labor dinner
would result In a shortage of guests. And so
it proves. Messrs. Mitchell, Keefe, Duncan, in
vitees, have sent in their regrets. They are
not overfond of Sam; but the effulgence of his
labor leadership" is undimmed, and therefore
consistency compels them to dodge the dinner.
If the intending Amphitryon at the White House
had displayed as much tact as these men have,
President Gompers would have been treated as
a labor leader and not as a politician, and been
bidden to that 'labor dinner.' If 'labor' is to
be dined, why omit the president of the entire
organization? Our prediction that the faithful
Loeb would be on hand with his 'explanation' is
also made good. The patient pne explains that
the dinner was to be private and not official.
A feeble shift. The intent to .snub Gompers
was plain to all men. It Is equally plain that
Samuel has turned the tables, and is chuckling
at the spectacle of the snubbers snubbed. Taic
wouldn't have done it!"
M
R. AND MRS. BRYAN left . recently ior
visit to Mexico. A San Antonio, Texua,
rttRrmfoTi fnllnwc "Mv frfonrln tin not retlUiro
me to- prejudice the future, and I shall not take
the advice o. nry opponents pn this subject. J
shall continue to write and; speak in defense oi
things which I;bpUeve to be gqod.for the Ame
lean people,- I hppe it may never become nece
met
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