criminatingin favour of one person or one town, that such a discrimination was a violaiion,, of charter, that therefore the South Improvement Company was founded on fraud, and the' courts must dissolve,it if the railways did not abandon it. The Petroleum Producers' Union which had been formed to grapple with the "Monster" actually demanded interstate regulation, for in a circular sent out to and boards of trade asking their aid against the conspiracy they included this paragraph: "We urge you to exert all your influence with your representatives in Congress to support 1 such measures offered there as will prohibit for all future time any monopoly of railroads or other transportation com panies from laying embargoes upon the trade between states by a system of excessive freights or unjust discrimination against buyers or shippers in any trade by the allowance of rebates or drawbacks to any persons whatever. This is a mat ter of national importance, and only the most decided action can protect you and us from the scheming strength of these monopolies." How the whole question appeared to an intelligent oil man, one, too, who had had the courage to resist in the attack on the trade in Cleveland, and who still was master of his own refinery, is shown by the following letter to the Cleve land Herald: The oil men now met the very plausible reasons given by the members of the company for their combination more intelligently than at first. There were grave abuses in the business, they admitted; there was too great refining capacity; but this they argued was a natural development in a new business whose growth had been extraordinary and whose limits were by no means defined. Time and experience would regulate it. Give the refiners open and regular freights, with no favours to any one, and the stronger and better equipped would live, the others die—but give all a chance. In fact, time and energy would regulate all the evils of which they complained if there were fair play.
The oil men were not only encouraged by_public opinion and by getting their on_the merits of their case; they were upheld by repeated proofs of aid from all sides; even the women of the region were asking what they could do, and were offering to wear their "black velvet bonnets" all summer if necessary. Solid support came from the inde pendent refiners and shippers in other parts of the country who were offering to stand in with them in their contest. New York was already one of the chief refining centres of the country, and the South Improvement Company had left it entirely out of its combination. As incensed as the creek itself, the New York interests formed an association, and about the middle of March sent a committee of three, with H. H. Rogers, of Charles Pratt and Company, at its head, to Oil City, to consult with the Producers' Union. Their arrival in the Oil Regions was a matter of great satisfaction. What made the oil men most exultant, however, was their growing belief that the rafiroadT=ifie crux of the whole ___ _ _ weakening.
The railroads tried in various ways to appease the oil men. They did not enforce the new rates. They had signed the con tracts, they declared, only after the South Improvement Com pany had assured them that all the refineries were to be taken in. Indeed, they seem to have realised within a fortnight that the scheme was doomed, and to have been quite ready to meet cordially a committee of oil men which went East to demand that the railroads revoke their contracts with the South Ithprovement Company. This committee,
which was composed of twelve persons, three of them being the New York representatives already mentioned, began its work by an interview with Colonel Scott at the Colonial Hotel in Philadelphia. With evident pride the committee wrote back to the Producers' Union: "Mr. Scott, differing in this respect from the railroad representatives whom we afterwards met, notified us that he would call upon us at our hotel." An interesting account of their interview was given to the Hepburn Committee in 1879 by W. T. Scheide, one of the number: We saw Mr. Scott on the 18th of March, 1872, in Philadelphia, and he said to us that he was very much surprised to hear of this agitation in the Oil Regions; that the object of the railroads in making this contract with the South Improvement Company was to obtain an evener to pool the freight—pool the oil freights among the different roads; that they had been cutting each other on oil freights for a number of years, and had not made any money out of it, although it was a freight they should have made money from; that they had endeavoured to make an arrangement among themselves, but had always failed; he said that they supposed that the gentlemen representing the South Improvement Company represented the petroleum trade, but as he was now convinced they did not, he would be very glad to make an arrangement with this committee, who undoubtedly did represent the petroleum trade; the committee told him that they could not make any such contract; that they had no legal authority to do so; he said that could be easily fixed, because the Legislature was then in session, and by going to Harrisburg a charter could be obtained in a very few days; the com mittee still said that they would not agree to any such arrangement, that they did not think the South Improvement Company's contract was a good one, and they were instructed to have it broken, and so they did not feel that they could accept a similar one, even if they had the power.
Leaving Colonel Scott the committee went on to New York, where they stayed for about a week, closely watched by the newspapers, all of which treated the "Oil War" as a national affair. Their first interview of importance in New York was with Commodore Vanderbilt, who said to them very frankly at the beginning of their talk: "I told Billy (W. H. Vanderbilt) not to have anything to do with that scheme." The committee in its report said that the Commo dore fully agreed with them upon the justice of their claims, and frequently asserted his objections to any combination seek ing a monopoly of other men's property and interests. He told them that if what they asked was that the railroads should fix a tariff which, while giving them a paying rate, would secure the oil men against drawbacks, rebates, or variations in the tariff, he would willingly co-operate. The Commodore ended his amiable concessions by reading the committee a let ter just received from the South Improvement Company offer ing to co-operate with the producers and refiners or to com promise existing differences. The oil men told the Commodore emphatically that they would not treat with the South Improvement Company or with anyone interested in it nor would they recognise its existence. And this stand they kept throughout their negotiations though repeated efforts were made by the railroad men, particularly those of the Central system, to persuade them to a compromise.