Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 1.djvu/366

Rh in the Oil Regions of Pennsylvania, but not that on an average; can you state from memory about the amount of annual production?

A. I have a circular here which gives the statement as 5,775,000 barrels.

Q. So that the production in round numbers for last year was 6,000,000 barrels; now, of this $1.25, how much were you to get as your drawback if you had carried out your arrangement?

A. The maximum we would have been entitled to receive is one dollar a barrel.

Q. Then on this production you would have received $6,000,000 a year, and the railroad companies an additional sum of $1,500,000; in other words, under your arrangement the public would have been put to an additional expense of $7,500,000 a year.

A. What public do you refer to? They would have had to pay it in Europe.

By Mr. Negley.

Q. Were there not at the same time combinations upon the part of producers to affect the price of oil in the market?

A. There were not at the time we started this matter; I do not know of any just at that moment; there have been over and over again. I want to state that a large portion of our oil product goes to Europe—of this very crude oil which Mr. Sheldon talks about; I have here a circular to which I call the attention of the committee, which bears out our position in this matter; I desire to put it in evidence because it gives the general opinion of merchants connected with the exportation of crude oil. It has been the impression of everybody in the trade that the oil exported should pay us an additional amount in this country, to be divided between those interested in the handling of it and the producing of it, to the extent of eight or ten millions a year; I have had that figured out three, or four, or five successive years. We have shown over and over again that that amount ought to be retained in this country. I have been engaged for several years in the oil business, and I have yet to sell one barrel to bear the market. I have always been upon the bull side of the market; I believe there ought to be in this country a better price for oil to every one engaged in it. In 1868, 1869, and 1870, there were movements in oil which brought to this country millions of dollars; and if the producers had refrained from sending forward their oil beyond the requirements of the market, the price would have been sustained. That has been the trouble always in making movements for a higher price. There is no man in this country who would not quietly and calmly say that we ought to have a better price for these goods.

By the Chairman.

Q. Do you mean a better price here, or a better price for that exported?

A. You could not get a better price for that exported without having a better price here.

Q. That is what the committee wants to know, whether it is necessary, in order to keep up the price abroad, to keep up the price at home?