"Mr. Cassatt," Mr. MacVeagh said, "I want to direct your attention to a personal matter which was asked you to a certain extent. You were asked whether you had any knowledge that Mr. Vanderbilt, representing the New York Central, or Mr. Jewett, representing the Erie, had any interest whatever in the Standard Oil Company or any of its affiliated companies. I wish to extend that question to the other trunk lines. I wish you would state whether or not to your knowledge Mr. Garrett, or any body representing the Baltimore and Ohio, had any such interest ?" "They have not to my knowledge." • • • • • "Then I wish you would state whether Mr. Scott or yourself, or any other officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, had any such interest ?" "Never to my knowledge. I speak of absolute knowledge as to myself, but as to Mr. Scott to the best of my knowledge and belief." Of course after this controversy the railroads were more obdurate than ever. Mr. Payne and Mr. Camden were active, too, in securing the suppression of the investigations and they soon succeeded not only in doing that but in pigeon-holing for the time Mr. Hopkins's Interstate Commerce Bill.
But the oil men had not been trusting entirely to Con gressional relief. From the time that they became convinced that the railroads meant to stand by the terms of the "Rutter Circular" they began to seek an independent outlet to the sea. The first project to attract attention was the Columbia Conduit Pipe Line. This line was begun by one of the pictur csque characters of Western Pennsylvania, "Dr." David Hos tetter, the maker of the famous Hostetter's Bitters. Dr. Hos tetter's Bitters' headquarters were in Pittsburg. He had become interested in oil there, and had made investments in Butler County. In 1874 he found himself hampered in disposing of his oil and conceived the idea of piping it to Pittsburg, where he could make a connection with the Baltimore and Ohio road, which up to this time had refused to go into the oil pool. Now at that time the right of eminent domain for pipes had been granted in but eight counties of Western Pennsylvania. Allegheny County, in which Pittsburg is located, was not included in the eight, a restriction which the oil men attributed rightly, no doubt, to the influence of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the State Legislature. That road could hardly have been expected to allow the pipes to go to Pittsburg and connect with a rival road if it could help it. Dr. Hostetter succeeded in buying a right of way through the county, however, and laid his pipes within a few miles of the city to a point where he had to pass under a branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The spot chosen was the bed of a stream over which the railroad passed by a bridge. Dr. Hos tetter claimed he had bought the bed of the run and that the railroad owned simply the right to span the run. He put down
his pipes, and the railroad sent a force of armed men to the spot, tore up the pipes, fortified their position and prepared to hold the fort. The oil men came down in a body, and, seizing an opportune moment, got possession of the disputed point. The railroad had thirty of them arrested for riot, but was not able to get them committed ; it did succeed, however, in pre venting the relaying of the pipes and a long litigation over Dr. Hostetter's right to pass under the road ensued. Disgusted with this turn of affairs Dr. Hostetter leased the line to three young independent oil men of whom we are to hear more later. They were B. D. Benson, David McKelvy and Major Robert E. Hopkins, all of Titusville. Resourceful and deter mined they built tank wagons into which the oil from the pipe was run and was carted across the tracks on the public high way, turned into storage tanks and again repiped and pumped to Pittsburg. They were soon doing a good business. The fight to get the Columbia Conduit Line into Pittsburg aroused again the agitation in favour of a free pipe-line bill, and early in 1875 bills were presented in both the Senate and House of the state and bitter and long fights over them followed. It was charged that the bills were in the interest of Dr. Hos tetter. He wants to transport his blood bitters cheaply, sneered one opponent! Many petitions for the bill were circulated, but there were even stronger remonstrances and the source of some of them was suspicious enough; for instance, that of the "Pittsburg refiners representing about one-third of the refining capacity of the Pennsylvania district and nearly one third of the entire capacity now in business." As the Pius burg refiners were nearly all either owned or leased by the Standard concern, and the few independents had no hope save in a free pipe-line, there seems to be no doubt about the origin of that remonstrance. Although the bills were strongly sup ported, they were defeated, and the Columbia Conduit Line continued to "break bulk" and cart its oil over the railroad track.
Another route was arranged which for a time promised sue cess. This was to bring crude oil by barges to Pittsburg, then to carry the refined down the Ohio River to Huntington and thence by the Richmond and Chesapeake road to Richmond. This scheme, started in February, was well under way by May, and "On to Richmond!" was the cry of the inde pendents. Everything possible was done to make this attempt fail. An effort was even made to prevent the barges which came down the Allegheny River from unloading, and this actually succeeded for some time. There seemed to be always some hitch in each one of the channels which the independents tried, some point at which they could be so harassed that the chance of a living freight rate which they had seen was destroyed.