THE MEN AND THE MONOPOLY has lately arisen at Queen Anne's Gate, on the site of a fine Victorian mansion demolished to make room for it, a gigantic palace, steel-framed in the up-to-date style, clad in Portland stone, towering seven stories high above the neighbouring buildings, looking down upon Buckingham Palace on the one side of the park, and standing on pretty nearly equal terms with the Government Offices and the Houses of Parliament on the other. I was interested to learn that it has been erected for the accommodation of the Anglo American Oil Company, which is the English branch of the famous Standard Oil Trust of the United States. There were even people who suggested that in view of the action of the United States Government against the Standard Oil Trust, still pending in the American Courts, and the influence of Mr. Roosevelt with his " trust-busting " aspirations, it may possibly be in contemplation to transfer the headquarters of the petroleum empire from the present offices of the Standard Oil Trust in Broadway, New York, to Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster. As Constantine transferred the capital of the Caesars from Rome to Byzantium, so these seers picture Mr. John D. Rockefeller removing his seat of government eastward from New York to London.
Time alone can test the value of this prophecy, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The new Aladdin's Palace that has sprung up in Birdcage Walk is an eloquent manifestation of the growing wealth and influence of the Great Oil Octopus in this country. That is a cogent reason why the public throughout the United Kingdom should understand without loss of time what this Trust is, and what reason there is for men to be afraid of it. Echoes reach us of the iniquities charged against Mr. Rockefeller and his colleagues in America, they circulate vaguely about the country but make little impression. On the other hand, strenuous efforts to convey a contrary impression have been made with considerable skill. The Trust includes in its scientific organisation an efficient Press department, and fights with the pen as well as with other weapons. I have therefore made it my business to undertake an exhaustive investigation of the history of the Trust and its operations, not in America alone, but in Europe and Asia. There is no great secret about the subject. But the materials are scattered and
difficult of access. A good deal of new light has been thrown upon the history of the con cern and its ramifications in the United King dom and other countries in the course of the great action of the United States Government against the Trust in the State of Missouri, referred to a moment ago. In the Standard Oil Trust we have exhibited the highest per - yet achieved by a ring of capitalists in the art of exploiting a great industry. The machinery created for this pur pose is a masterpiece of human ingenuity. The methods by which it has been employed seem to express the last word in craft, subtlety, and unscrupulousness, as employed for the purpose of amassing wealth. The Trust is consequently quite a fascinating subject for inquiry and reflection, apart from the direct interest which we every one of us have in its operations.
The indictment against the Standard, put briefly, is that its founder, Mr. John D. Rocke feller, organised in 1870 a combination of American oil refiners, who then controlled less than 10 per cent. of the refining business, and that he secured from the United States railroads secret rebates on the carriage of their oil, and even larger rebates on oil carried for their competitors. The result was that it became the interest of the railroads to dis courage the shipments of oil by refiners outside the Trust. Armed with this weapon of the secret rebate, the Standard Oil Trust was able to undersell its competitors and to force them to sell out at heavy loss. In ten years it had obtained by those methods the control of 90 per cent. of the American oil refining business, and being almost the sole buyer, it was able to dictate prices to the oil producers at the wells. It has since maintained its monopoly by elaborate espionage of its competitors' busi ness, by running ostensibly " independent " oil companies to take advantage of the anti-Trust feeling, and by obtaining up to the present day unfair railway discriminations in place of the secret rebate. It maintains an expensive staff of lobbyists at the Legislative Chambers of many lands, and it has constantly adopted the methods of bribery (direct and indirect) in dealing with politicians and publicists. It has always aimed, not at fair business com petition, but at absolute monopoly.