A COLOSSAL TRUST.

Southland Times, Issue 19098, 14 July 1903, Page 2

A COLOSSAL TRUST.

A notable instance of the awe-in-spiring magnitude of the scuule on which American millionaires conduct business is furnished by the transactions of the Standard Oil Trust. A writer in the Daily Mail describes it

as " the world's greatest achievement in organisation," and he gives some interesting facts about its o|>erations. Its oil is carried on its own railways and in its own steamers, on caravans in Asia and elephants in India, and half of the total oil consumed in the world passes through its hands. Wherever there is oil, there tho Trust operates. If it cannot buy up tJie oil fields, it seeks to regulate the price. In the East, where the Trust has met with most opposition to the spread of its tentacles, it has been selling oil Cor less than the cost of carriage. The object of the Trust's anxious attention at present is Burma, as the possession cf the Burmese oil-fields would enable it to dominate the East as it does Western Europe and " America. The profits of this gigantic company rend like an Arabian roma;nce. Last year they paid n dividend of 48 per rent, on a capital of £20.000,000. The head of the Trust is J. D. Rockfcller, one of the fanicws family of millionaires. They arc also extending their operations with the aim of controlling the gas and electric lighting companies, and the oil kings now control these in New York. Under its tyrant's will the Trust has a more powerful and more perfect system of service than the Czar of Kussio. It retains experts at princely salaries, and hires the best scientific skill to cairry out investigations on its behalf. It does a large business in by-products, such as gasoline, naphtha, lubricating oils, and vaseline, and it buys up all the patents affecting its business. The writer in the Mail concludes by declaring the Trust to be " the greatest factor in the industrial world of the time."