Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2.djvu/380

 plaintiff, and the profits on such excess the plaintiff at that time was willing to accept as compensation for such breach of said contract.

Affiant says that he does not know what contracts for the sale of oil defendants may have made, or what contracts for the manufacture or for the construction of barrels they may have entered into, or what obligations they may be under to their customers; but he says that for a long time past the defendants have had notice that plaintiff would insist upon the performance by them of their obligations under their said contract, and that if they have entered into contracts for the sale of oil as alleged by them and entered into other obligations, they have done so with the full knowledge that they were thereby violating and continuing the violation of said agreement of July 20, 1876.

I have read the affidavit of H. L. Taylor, filed in this case October 18, 1880, in which he says "that he has been for some six or eight years last past acquainted with Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Flagler, Mr. Payne, and others; that he has had conversations with some of these parties with regard to the control by the Standard Oil Company of the distilling and refining business in the state of Ohio and in the United States, and that he has heard them say in substance that the Standard Oil Company intended to wipe out all the refineries in the country except theirs, and to control the entire refining business in the United States." Affiant says that he has been acquainted with H. L. Taylor for several years past, that all the foregoing statements so far as they relate to him are false, and that he never made to said Taylor or to any person in his hearing any such statement, nor statements in substance to that effect. Affiant further says that he never in company with said Taylor visited any of the cities or places mentioned in his affidavit for the purpose of inspecting or examining refineries, though he may have met said Taylor incidentally at various places, but that he never showed him refineries that were formerly under the control of others and running independently and stated that the same had passed under the control of the Standard Oil Company, nor did anybody else make such statements to Taylor in his hearing.

Affiant says that it has not come to pass, as sworn to by said Taylor, that said Standard Oil Company has "wiped out" the refining business of the United States or that it to-day controls it, but affiant believes that at the time said Taylor made his affidavit he knew there were very many refineries running independently of and in no way connected with the Standard Oil Company, and that said Taylor was himself then interested in the profits of a large refining business represented by a number of refine who were large competitors of the Standard Oil Company.

With respect to the assertion of said Taylor that "in many instances to his knowledge the Standard Oil Company has bought refineries and taken them down," affiant says that several years ago when the business was very much scattered, in several instances and for greater economy in manufacturing, the Standard Oil Company dismantled refineries unfavourably located and utilised the construction, machinery, and appliances of the same to increase its manufactory at Cleveland.