Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2.djvu/237

 mittee which examined him when it objected to a combination for raising prices.

Four years after the failure of the first great scheme, a similar one went into effect. What was its object? J. J. Vandergrift, one of the directors of the Standard Oil Company at that time, questioned once under oath as to what they meant to do, said: "Simply to hold up the price of oil—to get all we can for it." Nobody pretended anything else at the time. "The refiners and shippers who are in the association intend there shall be no competition." "It is a struggle for a margin." "The scope of the association is an attempt to control the refining of oil, with the ultimate purpose of advancing its price and reaping a rich harvest in profits." These are some of the comments of the contemporary press. The published interviews with the leaders confirm these opinions. Mr. Rockefeller, always discreet in his remarks, denied that the scheme was to make a "corner" in oil; it was "to protect the oil capital against speculation and to regulate prices." H. H. Rogers was more explicit: "The price of oil to-day is fifteen cents per gallon" (March, 1875). "The proposed allotment of business would probably advance the price to twenty cents… Oil to yield a fair profit should be sold for twenty-five cents per gallon."

What was the exact status of this refining business out of which it was necessary to make more in the year 1871, when the first scheme to control it was hatched? The simplest and safest way to study this question is by means of the chart of prices on pages 194 and 195. On this chart the line A shows the variation in the average monthly price, per gallon, of export oil in barrels in New York from 1866 to June 1, 1904. The line B shows the average monthly price, per gallon, of crude oil in bulk at the wells. A glance at the chart