A CREAT MONOPOLY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13921, 26 March 1909, Page 7

A CREAT MONOPOLY.

THE TRUST'S GIGANTIC SCHEME. In, order to. meet the demands of itt European trade, which is rapidly expanding, the Standard Oil Company n now planning- developments involvin, the employment , of nearly^ 100 mor > ships and the of a gigan tic central refinery. in New Jersey, on Staten Island Sound, just by the' Port of Nefw ,Yofk, and thus furnishing s splendid centre for world-wide distribution. It is; the cheerful hope of tht Standard Oil Trust to extinguish suoi? competition in the oil trade as may still •xist in Europe, and the chances of its doing so are riot regarded as unfav* ourable. "In Europe," remarked one representative of the Standard Oil Company when interviewed, "they speak of us as a great industrial octopus, stifling an** 1 ' murdering small traders. Europeans, and particularly Britishers, are tolerant and sensible. They say give us good oil and cheap, and they do not talk lot of nonsense about giant monopolies and law defying trusts. No, we do not anticipate England putting a taritj" on Standard Oil so as to assist the English companies." The new plant will be the largest in the world, one section of it covering almost a thousand acres. It will be the company's main plant, and its products will be shipped direct from the New Jersey, coast to every part of the world i whero oil is used. Although the Standard Oil Trust now has in operation more than 75,000 miles of pipe-lines, it Will bo necessary to construct main thousands of miles more to bring the fields of the west and south, reaching as far as thi> Indian territory. In addition to tho pipelines, the plant wii> be fed by two railroads. The refined oil, paraffin* gasoline, and other products turned out there will naturally add to the shipping problem. The Standard Oil Company at present charters hundreds'- of vessels for carrying freight abroad, although the company itself owns 72 monster oil-tank steam 1 * ships, and 22 cargo steamships. One hundred, or more new tank-steamships will be added to the oil fleet, as the cost of shipping oil by tank is less than one-half the cost of shipping it by barrel. The company now employs 71 000 men, but will be compelled to engage 1200 more to work in the first section or the new plant as soon as this is completed. The company a Is; intends to instal new trunk pipe-lines, so that branch refiners in every part of the United States may be supplied direct with csiude oil.