Conservative * 11
ff
Th °
THESTANDABD
of turn-
OIL COMPANY. purpose
iug votes to popu
lism inspired Attorney-General Smythe
to begin proceedings in Nebraska against
The Standard Oil Company. This great
commoner and defender of the common
people pronounces The Standard Oil
Company a trust. Ho does not recog
nize it as an incorporation , nor does he
call the Union Pacific and its numerous
feeders and branches nor the B. & M.
and its subsidiary lines of transportation
a ' ' trust. ' ' "Why not ?
Before The Standard Oil Company in
vaded Nebraska the prices of petroleum
were lofty and gorgeous. Before the
blight of the "Money Power" touched
and tainted coal oil in Nebraska that
oleaginous necessity cost consumers on
these plains one dollar a gallon. Now ,
under the accursed despotism of Stan
dard Oil monopoly , the same quality of
oil is so cheapened that it sells for nine
and ten cents a gallon.
This wretched combination of parsons
and pirates began life in a mild and
_ , , , , . . mewling way.
_ .
Buying ! Buying ! ,
But at an early
period of its existence it cultivated a
respect for brains , business ability ,
and Pcience ; and very soon commenced
to employ men to attend to its business
who had capacity for management and
brains for the development of the com
pany's affairs. The Standard Oil Co.
went into the open markets where ser
vices , mental and manual , were for Bale ,
and bought the use of cultivated , alert
brains. It hunted for the skilled and
most efficient wage-earners employed in
any of the industrial pursuits of thriv
ing and laboring Americanism. It
found cultivated heads , with good judg
ment. It discovered skilled hands
deftly guided by first-quality brains.
It selected for its business the very best
of men and remunerated them with the
very best of compensation ; that is , with
high positions in the trade-world and
with commensurate salaries.
Thus its inception was a combine of
money , enterprise , brains and good bus
iness management. The "combine"
discovered new and general demand for
the possible by-products of petroleum.
Its paid investigators , its skilled chem
ists and analysts invented and brought
into general use vaseline , cosmoline ,
paraffine , Easter eggs and soap from coal
oil residuums. The savings of science
thus employed in producing hundreds
of other useful things have enabled
The Standard Oil Company to sell a
gallon of good oil , in a tin can covered
by a wooden jacket , for less money than
one can buy a pint of Apollinaris water.
Admit that individuals in the oil trade
have been crushed out by the gigantio ,
energetic and despotic competition of The
Standard Oil Company. But the multi
tude of consumers have been getting
cheaper and better oil. The few have
suffered. The many have been bene
fited.
The Standard Oil Company brings
into the United States each day , by
, , , , selling oil in all
Oil Gold. , . , , ,
the world's
mar
kets , in competition with Russia and all
the rest of the earth , more than one
hundred and twenty-five thousand del
lars. The United Spates is thus getting
into its gold circulation more money each
day than from any other source of inter
national trade. Perhaps that is why
Smythe and other Bryanarchists pro
pose to prosecute The Standard Oil
Company in Nebraska.
The Grange talked about the abolition
of middle men. The Standard Oil Com
pany emancipated consumers from the
charges , profits and wages of thousands
of middle men and introduced produc
tion to consumption face to face.
THE CONSERVATIVE , in another article ,
will continue the further discussion of
the value to Nebraska of The Standard
Oil Company on the one hand and of
The Standard Office-Hunting Company
of Allen , Bryan , House-Rent Holcomb ,
and the Sleek and Smooth Constantine
J. Smythe on the other hand.
Whether oils or offices are most op
pressive to Nebraska taxpayers is a beau
tiful and attractive puzzle. In its solu
tion there may be found instruction ,
amazement and infinite delights.
A * ° s brok1er
PJLUTOCKATS. from Oufc ln tne
state , Mr. A. B.
Christian of York , was in the city this
week on his way to Macinac , and
stopped in at The Excelsior office to
pay his respects. Our natural inquiry
was [ concerning the condition of the
farming element of the state and we
found him well posted and very enthus
iastic on the subject. His business is
almost altogether with the farmers , to
whom he is now making larger loans
than ever. These loans are being
effected principally , he says , to increase
their holdings. Where but a few years
ago these same men , or many of them ,
were anxious to close out , they are now
equally anxious , not only to hold on ,
but to take up more land than they
have. Mr. Christian thinks that this
fall will see the greatest boom in farm
lauds that the state has ever had , and
ho is going East to get more money to
make ready for it. As to the old mort
gages , he says that they are nearly all
cleaned up and many men are willing to
pay now and save interest , but have not
that saving clause in their instrument ,
and the holder prefers to let his money
remain as an investment and will not
accept payment. These capitalists
would have accepted payment , if of
fered , quick enough a few years ago.
But times do change. In order to force
payments on these loans some farmers
who have got the money in the bank
are allowing their interest to default in
hopes that foreclosure will be begun , in
which event they file a Us pendena and
then the amount , principal and interest ,
is due and the mortgagee has to take
it whether ho will or no.
When Nebraska farmers are so
anxious to pay their debts that they
have to resort to all manner of tricks to
do it there should bo no trouble about
getting good money down East to loan
those who wish to buy moro property or
improve that they havo. As to those
that have ready cash , which is piling up
so in the banks that they have refused
to pay interest on the deposits ( which
in many coses ore ten times greater
than their capital ) , Mr. Christian says
that many of them are taking the money
to improve their places , putting up
newer and larger granaries , building
barns , improving their dwelling houses ,
or moving the old house off and putting
up a bettor one , laying in improved
machinery , or making investments in
town. The farmer , now that ho is
flush , is not wasting his money , indeed
he buys more shrewdly than he did a
dozen years ago , but he demands a bet
ter class of goods. So the country
stores are stocking up wonderfully , and
in place of much of the shoddy stuff
that occupied their shelves when the
community was first opened up there has
appeared a finer and moro substantial
class of goods in all lines. And the
prospects of a tremendous crop this fall
makes things still brighter with them
all. Mr. Christian says that farm laud
in the vicinity of York cannot bo bought
for less than $85 an aero and from that
up to $50 , according to location. Ho
sold a quarter near the city just before
leaving , rolling land without improve
ments , at $60 an acre. This is a class of
information that should bo disseminated
through the East by the Commercial
Club , or through some other interested
channel. Clement Chase in The Omaha
Excelsior.
Edward Rowland Sill , California's
poet-prophet , whose genius burned itself
out so early , has left among his verses
an exquisite little poem , which , in half
a dozen lines , tells us how to make all
human life divine :
"Forenoon , and afternoon , and night I Fore
noon ,
And afternoon , and night 1 Forenoon , and
What !
The empty Hong ropeatn itself No more ?
yea , that iB life ; inaho this forenoon fmblime ,
Thin afternoon a pnalm , this night a prayer ,
And time is conquered , and thy crown in
won. "
"Lot not your right hand know what
your left hand doeth" is a precept of
conservative stoicism.
Friendship is invariably intellectual ,
while , acquaintance should always be
materially utilitarian.
