Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1904 — STANDARD OIL EXPOSE. [ARTICLE]

STANDARD OIL EXPOSE.

A good idea of the results of the modern hot-bed, high tariff trust and corporation methods advocated by the Republican party and exemplified by thousands of instances during the last fifteen years, can be gained by a thorough perusal of Thomas W. Lawson’s expose of the Standard Oil crowd, begun in the July number of ‘‘Everybody’s Magazine.” This series of articles is so hot that it has set the whole United States to talking, and some underhanded efforts have even been made to squelch Mr. Lawson, and suppress the magazine that has the audacity to publish such startling facta about ‘‘respectable business men.” This, however, has not yet been accomplished, although a judge over in Boston, evidently iu the pay of this disreputable gang, attempted to, and did succeed in confiscating part of the July number on the trumped up charge that the cover design, which contained an eagle and the United States

flag, violated a certain statute which prohibited the use of the flag for advertising purposes. Whether the flag used in that connection could be construed as being used for advertizing purposes or not, is the point at issue. But even with a few numbers confiscated in Boston, about 400,000 copies got in their good work at other points a good many miles apart, and from the excitement it is causing, the people of this country must be beginning to “think up” a little. This story would make good reading for every depositor in McCoy’s bank, and shows the final wind-up of those who blindly and cheerfully follow false leaders like a flock of sheep, through the green pastures of good fellowship only to stumble over the precipice of deception. Some of the things that Lawson says are so good that they will bear repetition, and the readers of these excerpts will, if they are not already following the story, surely want to read it from start to finish. He says: “However much influence I had obtained through my long years of dealings with the public, independent of ‘Standard Oil,’ I realized that ‘Standard Oils’ influence and prestage were much greater, for it must be remembered that at this time the public had not had the evidence since acquired of the ‘system’ of coldblooded trickery.” * * * “These incidents show that the ‘System.’ by whose methods the public is as ruthlessly plundered as though the product of their labors were taken away from them by highwaymen, admits also of its own votaries being tricked and despoiled by their associates. *% “At no time in the history of the I’niled States has the power of dollars been as great as now. Freedom and equity are controlled by dollars. It is possible, to-day, with dollars, to ‘steer 1 the selection of the candidates of both the great political parties for the highest office in our Republic, that of President of the United States, so that the people as a matter of fact, must elect one of the ‘steered’ candidates. It is plainly evident to any student of the times that at no other period in the history of the United States has honesty been so completely ‘steered’ by dishonesty as at this, the beginning of the twentieth century. * * * “I shall go further and say that there exists to-day uncontrolled in the hands of a set of men a power to make dollars from nothing. * * * “The American people have not stopped to figure out that fortunes of certain kinds are abs-lute selfevidence that they were acquired by illegal methods, and if allowed to multiply their kind, the people will surely be enslaved and the Republic destroyed. * * * “William,(Rockefeller) I feel as though I had done an honest day’s labor! Thirty-six million dollars made and no hitch, no delay. “Can it be that a just God suffers our sons and daughters to eke out a bare existence as the best reward of earnest effort and sterling worth, and at the same time rewards these other men with $36,000,000 for one day’s labor?” Following this last quotation is something that the publishers thought entirely too hot for publication in the middle of summer, so they left it out of the main body of the story and put it in their editorial pages with proper explanations. Read it. It will be worth your while. xx