Bitter as this policy was for those who had suffered by the Standard's campaigns, it was, of course, the only thing for the trust to do—indeed, that was what it had been waging war on the independents for : that it might shut them down and dis mantle them, that there might be less oil made and higher prices for what it made. This wisdom in locating factories has continued to characterise the Standard operations. It works only plants which pay, and it places its plants where they can be operated to the best advantage. Many fine examples of the relation of location in manufacturing to crude supply and to markets are to be seen in the Standard Oil Company plants to-day. For example, refined for foreign shipments is made at the seaboard, and the vessels which carry it are loaded at docks, as at the works at Bayonne, New Jersey. The cost of transportation from factory to ship, a large item in the old days, is eliminated entirely. The Middle West market is now supplied almost entirely from the Standard factories at Whit ing, Indiana, a town built by the Standard Oil Company for refining Ohio oil. Here 25,000 barrels of oil are refined daily, and from this central point distributed to the Mississippi Valley.
All of the industries which have been grafted on to the refin eries have always been run with the same exact regard to minute economies. These industries were numerous because of Mr. Rockefeller's great principle, "pay a profit to nobody." From his earliest ventures in combination he had applied this principle. Mr. Blanchard's explanation to the Hepburn Com mission in 1879 of why the Standard had controlled the Erie's yards at Weehawken since 1874', shows exactly Mr. Rocke feller's point of view.* This policy of paying nobody a profit took Mr. Rockefeller into the barrel business. In 1872, when Mr. Rockefeller became master of the Cleveland oil business, the purchase of barrels was one of a refiner's heaviest expenses. In an estimate of the cost of producing a gallon of refined oil in 1873, made in the Oil City Derrick and accepted as correct by that paper, the cost of the barrel is put at four cents a gallon, which was more than the crude oil cost at that date. Even at four cents a gallon barrels were hard to get, so great was the demand. If a refiner could get his barrels back, of course there was a saving (a returned barrel was estimated to be worth 23A cents), but the return could not be counted on; empty barrels coming from Europe particularly, and con signed to Western shippers, were frequently seized in New York by Eastern refiners. The need was held to justify the deed, like thieving in famine time. Fortunes were made in barrels, and dealers hearing of a big supply in Europe have been known to charter a vessel and go for them, and reap rich profits. In fact, a whole volume of commercial tragedy and comedy hangs around the oil barrel. Now it was to the barrel —the "holy blue barrel"—that Mr. Rockefeller gave early attention. He determined to make it himself. One of the earli est outside ventures of the Standard Oil Company in Cleve land was barrel works, and Mr. Rockefeller was soon getting for two and a half cents what his rivals paid four for, though he was by no means the only refiner who manufactured barrels in the early days—each factory aimed to add barrel works as soon as able. The amount the Standard Oil Company saved
on this one item is evident when the extent of its business is considered. The year before the trust was formed (1881) they manufactured 4,500p0o barrels, an average of about 5,000 a day. Since that time the barrel has been gradually going out of the oil business, bulk transportation taking its place very largely. Nevertheless, in 1901 the Standard Oil Company manufactured about 3,000,00o new barrels. In the period since they began the manufacture of barrels their fac tories have introduced some small savings which in the aggre gate amount to large sums. For instance, they have improved the lap of the hoop—a small thing, but one which amounted in 1901 to something like $is,000. Some $so,000 a year was saved by a slight increase in the size of the tankage. The Standard claims that these economies are so small in them selves that it only pays to practise them where there is a large aggregate business.
More important than the barrel to-day, however, is the tin can—for it is in tin cans that all the enormous quantities of refined sent to tropical and Oriental countries must go to prevent deterioration—and nowhere does the policy of econ omy which Mr. Rockefeller has worked out show better than in one of the Standard canning works. In 1902 the writer vis ited the largest of the Standard can factories, the Devoe, on the East River, Long Island City. It has a capacity of 70,000 five-gallon cans a day, and is probably the largest can factory in the world. At the entrance of the place a man was sweeping up carefully the dirt on the floor and wheeling it away—not to be dumped in the river, however. The dirt was to be sifted for tin filings and solder dust. At every step something was saved. The Standard buys the tin for its cans in Wales, because it is cheaper. It would not be cheaper if it were not for a vagary in administering the tariff by which the duty on tin plate is refunded if the tin is made into receptacles to be ex ported. This clause was probably made for the benefit of the Standard, it being the largest single consumer of tin plate in the United States. In 1901 the Standard Oil Company im ported over 6o,000 tons of tin with a value of over $1,000,000. This tin comes in sheets packed in flat boxes, which are opened by throwing—it is quicker than opening by a hammer, and time is considered as valuable as tin filings. The empty boxes are sold by the hundred to the Long Island gardens for grow ing plants in, and the broken covers are sold for kindling. The trimmings which result from shaping the tin sheets for a can are gathered into bundles and sold to chemical works or foundries. There is the same care taken with solder as with tin, the amount each workman uses being carefully gauged. The canning plants, like the refineries, compare their results monthly, and the laurels go to the manager who has saved the most ounces of solder, the most hours, the most footsteps.