BLOW TO THE OIL TRUST

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8666, 5 July 1906, Page 2

BLOW TO THE OIL TRUST

«• PRESIDENT ' ROOSEVELT'S ACTION. A Reuter despatch, from Washington, dated May 4, says: — President , Roosevelt, in a message to Oomgr-ess accompanying Mr Gar'field's .report on the Standard Oil Company's methods, says that ihe report shows tlhat "the Standard Oil Company haa benefited enormously up to almost fie present moment by secret rates, many of these being clearly unlawful. .This benefit amounts to at least £150,000 a year. This represents the profit the Standaa-d Oil Company obtains at tihe expens© of the railways, but, of 1 course, the ultimate- result is that it obtains a much larger profit at the expense of tihe public." The message continues : — "The Department of Justice will take up the question of instituting prosecutions, at least in certain cases. ■ • "In addition to secret rates, the Standard Oil Company profits immensely by open rates so arranged) es to give it an overwhelming advantaspe over ' independent competitors. The New England railroads thus benefit the Standard Oil Company to the extent of between £60,000 and £80,000 annually, and similar conditions prevail in a large pairt of the west and eoutihwest. v . " This shows that granting the .Government power to substitute a 'proper for an improper rate is in ; rery many instances the only effective way to prevent improper disoriminatione.' Other great corporations, says the President, are guilty of the same practices, and he argues that conferring on <?t>ine Governmental body the powear of supervision and control over inter-State commerce .would not weaken individual initiative, but would oonseirye it by curbing those monopolies which crush out individual initiative. "It is highly desirable," says the President, "that the element of competitiion in oil should be introduced by the passage of some law such as that already passed by the House putting alcohol used in the arts upon the free list," A New York message of May 4 , says : — The most remarkable feature of President Roosevelt's message is the closeness \vit!h~ which it follows Wall Street's anticipations. Both tihe facts and conclusions contained iji the Ga.rfield report and the President's remarks thereon had been foreknown in influential Stock Exchange circles, and) the effect of their publication on the market was largely discounted. Loud complaints have been made that thipire was a leakage somewhere at the White House, which allowed a group of operators to obtain a start on the market. It is suggested in some quarters, however, that tihe pin-port of the. message was purposely a'evealed' in advance 1 , in order to break it gently to the market. In the present unstable financial conditions a dangerous panic might have resulted from the ©hock To an unprepared market, caused 1 by anything threatening enormous interests controlled by or conraected with the Standard Oil and other trusts. As it happened, thie market steadied on the publication of the message. Financiers regard it ratiher as another interesting illustration of President Roosevelt's eagerness to conciliate 'the growing Socialist sentiment tihan as an imminent danger.