Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 1.djvu/193

Rh ment without complaint. Until this shall be done we shall ask the railway companies in hauling oil to confine themselves to legitimate business, and to obey the new constitution, in letter and spirit. It will behoove our citizens to see that their new constitution is carefully respected.

We are opposed to the new arrangement for the large advance in the price of freight upon oil. If the railroad companies have lost money in carrying oil for the Cleveland refineries during several years past, let not the whole petroleum interest, in its depressed condition, be required to sustain the penalty. We submit to the railway managers whether it is not right to charge for hauling goods in proportion to the distance hauled, allowing a small discount, perhaps, upon the rate per mile for the greater distance.

Our remarks upon this subject may have the colour of assurance, but, from the large majority given last winter in favour of the new constitution of this state, we have great confidence that the people will not part with their sovereign rights, nor allow themselves to be ruled by King Pool.

At first the Oil Region was puzzled by the Rutter circular. It certainly was plausible. Was it not true that every man shared equally under it? As the days passed, the dazed mental condition into which it had thrown the oil men cleared up. Mr. Allen's editorials began to take effect. The pipe-lines left out of the pool began to ask how it could be legal that the railroads should enter into an arrangement which obviously would drive them out of business. The creek refiners began to ask by what right the advantage of geographical position at the wells should be taken from them, and Cleveland be allowed to retain the advantages of her proximity to the Western market; Pittsburg her position on the Ohio River and the market it commanded; all of the cities the advantage of their proximity to great local markets and to such necessary supplies as barrels and acids. Besides, was it constitutional for the railroads thus to regulate interstate commerce? Was not the arrangement, as far as the Pennsylvania was concerned, plainly prohibited by the new constitution of the state of Pennsylvania? The producers slowly began to realise, too, that the Rutter circular, like the South Improvement charter and contracts, did not recognise them as a body. The