Kerosene, the greatest article of trade from among the petroleum products is really an Ameri can specialty, both by virtue of practice and quali ties of crude oil. America, therefore, has had the advantage coming from a superior grade of manu factured product, though this advantage has been lessened recently by technical advances in other countries. American lubricating oils surpass all that the rest of the world can offer, and in actual value per gallon they stand second to none of the other products. The paraffin oils of this country are without a peer elsewhere, thus making the wax a decidedly valuable article of trade, while naph thas are secured in larger amounts from American crude than from any other yet known. Where dis criminative duties place restrictions on trade in refined products, as in France, Spain, and Mexico, the simple practice of shipping crude oil has saved the day for American oil. Added to these natural advantages, the unfailing insistence on the part of the Standard officials for reliable oils of high qual ity has been well known abroad and has been an ever constant help in keeping valuable markets.
It is impossible more than to hint at the obstacles which the Standard has encountered in its trade round the world : the long struggles to open new markets; in educating half civilized natives to the advantages of artificial light; the time and money spent in experiments; and the slow, often discour agingly slow, successes. Everywhere the Stand ard has fought its fight on the ground, carrying the struggle straight into the contested territory, usually with a local company under its own domi nation. Such companies as the Anglo-American Oil Company, in England ; the American Petro leum Company, in Holland ; the Societate Romana Americana, in Roumania, are found in almost every country where the Standard does a large business. Like their fellows in the United States, they are manufacturing or selling companies, for the Standard abroad has even more rigidly adhered to its policy of not engaging in actual production.
This world-inclusive organization has been one of the main reasons for Standard successes, in just the same way as the union of interests in this country brought it immense power to fight compe tition. None of the foreign oil regions possessed this great advantage of a centralized industry. Several Russian operators were strong individually but their strength in outside competition would have been increased tenfold had they worked as a unit instead of separately. At the present time, however, this process of concentration and econ omy of large operation is going on everywhere at a rate which promises trouble ahead for the Stand ard. In every oil-producing country the example of the Standard is being copied studiously, profit ing from its successes, avoiding its mistakes. The
Standard long ago acquired a high degree of effi ciency and has labored untiringly to strengthen and perfect its position. Through this efficiency its early victories came so much the easier. Now, however, its rivals are acquiring the same perfection of sys tem and organization, the same concentration of capital, and often, in addition, they have secured the active support instead of the opposition of their governments.
I n the East there is the British Company hold ing a monopoly of the Burmese fields. A powerful combination of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, with the Royal Dutch Company and the Rothschilds' interests, has been completed to con trol not only the industry of the Dutch Indies but also the distribution of Russian products in the Orient. A single company patterned after the Standard, with almost unlimited backing, now con trols about ninety per cent. of the Galician in dustry. Legal steps have been taken to oust the Standard company from Roumania, one of the few localities where it has acquired foreign holdings, while a rival organization is ready to assume the control. Baku, at last, also has its scattered in terests united by a powerful syndicate of German capitalists. The British interests, forming an im portant second group by themselves, have been en listed with the German concern, to work toward a common end. This means still greater rivalry on the part of Russian oil especially in the markets of Western Europe.
A new era is unquestionably dawning upon the oil business. Every advantage, improvement, or economy that skill and capital can secure will be had by these rival, foreign oil "trusts." Their efforts to perfect methods of refining, handling, and marketing, and to extend the sale of their products will be no less vigorous than have been those of the Standard. A mighty struggle is inev itable. The struggle in the past has been one of un equal forces, the Standard like a perfectly trained army arrayed against disorganized stragglers. In the future it will be a struggle of well-matched forces, each with modern equipment, each with enormous resources behind it. The Standard has the confidence born of many victories; it is well prepared to meet worthy foes. What the outcome will be, no one can foretell. Should the Standard suffer defeat, the blow to operators in this coun try would emphasize, as nothing else could, the far-reaching importance of the present foreign trade in petroleum products even to the smallest of American producers. Yet from the standpoint of maintaining our supplies for future genera tions, nothing could be more desirable than to have all the foreign markets won away from this country.