As soon as it had acquired a firm hold of the re fining branch of the business, the Standard turned its attention to the control of the pipe lines, which connected the wells with the local refineries and main shipping points on the railroads. When this third progressive step of expansion was begun, about 1874, there were many miles of pipes in the oil regions, operated by a large number of com peting companies, but few lines exceeded ten miles in length. The United Pipe Line Company, the first controlled by the Standard, was formed in 1874, and immediately entered into an agreement with the other leading pipe companies concerning a schedule of rates and special rebates to be re ceived from the railroads. The companies partici pating in the agreement were consolidated into three main concerns : the United, the Columbia Conduit and the Empire Transportation Com pany, the United also having acquired by purchase most of the lines which had not been asked to be come a party to the agreement.
Lack of harmony, however, quickly disrupted the alliance and precipitated a brief but fierce war for supremacy between the three transportation com panies and their associated refiners. The pipe lines were still merely serving as feeders to the rail roads, so that the latter were also unavoidably drawn into the conflict to protect their own valu able interests. Each one of the three main pipe line companies, therefore, allied itself to the rail road system with which it was most intimately associated in handling oil shipments: the Columbia Conduit Company with the Baltimore & Ohio ; the Empire Transportation Company with the Penn sylvania; and the United Pipe Line Company with the Erie and the New York Central.
After a short period of armed peace following the disruption of the pipe-line alliance, the Empire Company precipitated hostilities by securing pos session of a refinery on New York harbor, and be ginning the erection of another at Philadelphia. Both Standard interests and those of its railroad allies were threatened by this encroachment on their most highly prized preserves, and a furious struggle immediately began between the Standard and the New York Central on the one side, and the Empire and the Pennsylvania Railroad on the other. For six months the latter exerted every means in its power to crush the United Pipe Line and the Standard Oil Company. The Pennsyl vania Railroad carried oil at a rate far below the actual cost of hauling, while the independent re finers connected with the Empire Company sold oil for almost nothing in the territory previously controlled l5y the Standard. It was a case of at tacking the Standard with its own weapons. But concentration of power had gone too far ; the Stand ard position was already rendered impregnable by its unlimited resources, and the Empire Com pany, unable to continue the conflict longer, was forced to yield in 1877.
The victory over the Empire Company gave the Standard a new advantage, which was speedily improved. The Columbia Conduit Company was easily absorbed, while a score or more of smaller companies, in fact, all which threatened to become competitors, were acquired by 'purchase.
Thus, within eight years from its incorporation, the Standard Oil group controlled nine tenths of the refining business ; it either owned or controlled in some way every transportation agent in the oil regions; it controlled the terminal facilities in the principal seaports; and it owned or held by lease the majority of tank cars on the chief railroads. The Standard was now the buyer, carrier, manu facturer, and seller of petroleum. The dream of dominating the petroleum industry had taken only twelve years for its fullest realization. But peace ful domination was far away. Supremacy had been acquired only through hard struggles, and other hard struggles must be won to maintain control.
The Tidewater Pipe Line Company, organized in 1879 by independent interests to transport crude oil to the coast, was the first and most important rival. The Tidewater episode was important, not only because the concern had large resources and made a strong fight, but also because it led ulti mately to the material extension of Standard activ ity and control. The war was carried on mainly through the railroad allies of the Standard, for they were most vitally concerned in its outcome. The pipe line to the seaboard threatened to rob them of the traffic which had become so profitable, and immediately freight rates were cut to kill it. Even to the general public the rates from western Pennsylvania to any one of the leading ports were dropped from one dollar and fifty cents a barrel to thirty and then fifteen cents. Such a fierce struggle could not last long. It was highly profit able to the shippers, while it continued, but it soon exhausted the resources of the Tidewater Company and forced a capitulation.
This outcome served still further to strengthen the position of the Standard, for it ended the traf fic war temporarily and led to the building of Standard trunk lines to the coast. The National Transit Company, a new subsidiary concern, was organized to control the pipe-line end of the busi ness, and, with its seaboard trunk lines completed, the Standard became entirely independent of the railroads which had aided it so long and faithfully. The construction of trunk lines also placed the Standard on essentially the same footing which it now holds. Subsequent events have been confined largely to growth along the lines then laid down and to extending its operations to keep pace with a rapidly expanding industry. Only once since then has an important rival appeared, in the form of the United States Pipe Line Company, organ ized among the independent operators by Lewis Emery in 1890. Every possible obstacle was placed in the way of this line during its construction, even to an armed encounter between employees of the pipe company and those of a New Jersey railroad which was trying in all ways to block the route to the coast. The line, however, was eventually put through after many delays and difficulties, and now, under the operation of the Pure Oil Com pany, it, with its modest five or six hundred miles, is the sole pipe-line competitor of the great Stand ard system in the eastern part of the country.