Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2.djvu/208

 made in 1880 between the producers and the Pennsylvania Railroad, a clause of which stipulated that thereafter railroad rates should be open and equal to all shippers. The Pennsylvania seems to have intended at first to live up to this agreement, and it encouraged refiners in both the Oil Regions and Philadelphia to establish works. At first things had gone very well. There were economies in refining near the point where the oil was produced, and so long as the young independents had a low rate to seaboard for their export oil they prospered. But in 1884 things began to change. In that year the Standard Pipe Line made a pooling arrangement with the Pennsylvania Railroad, by which rates from the Oil Regions were raised to fifty-two cents a barrel, an advance of seventeen cents a barrel over what they had been getting, and in return for this raise the Standard agreed to give the railroad twenty-six per cent. of all the oil shipped Eastward, or pay them for what they did not get. This advance put the independents at a great disadvantage. In September, 1888, another advance came. Rates on oil in barrels were raised to sixty-six cents, while rates on oil in tanks were not raised. The explanation was evident. The railroad owned no tank-cars, but rented them from the Standard Oil Company. It refused to furnish these tank-cars to the independents, but forced them to ship in barrels, and now advanced the price on oil in barrels. This second advance was more than the refiners could live under, and they combined and took their case to the Interstate Commerce Commission, a hearing being given them in Titusville in May, 1889. No decision had as yet been rendered, and they in the meantime were having a more and more trying struggle for life, and their exasperation against the Standard was increasing with each week. When, therefore, the representatives of the Producers' Oil Company proposed a league with the independent refiners they were cordially welcomed.