CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS BEGUN AGAINST THE STANDARD IN OHIO IN 1897 FOR NOT OBEYING THE COURT'S ORDER OF 1892 TO DISSOLVE THE TRUST—SUITS BEGUN TO OUST FOUR OF THE STANDARD'S CONSTITUENT COMPANIES FOR VIOLATION OF OHIO ANTI-TRUST LAWS—ALL SUITS DROPPED BECAUSE OF EXPIRATION OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL MONNETT'S TERM—STANDARD PERSUADED THAT ITS ONLY CORPORATE REFUGE IS NEW JERSEY—CAPITAL OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY INCREASED, AND ALL STANDARD OIL BUSINESS TAKEN INTO NEW ORGANISATION—RESTRICTION OF NEW JERSEY LAW SMALL—PROFITS ARE GREAT AND STANDARD'S CONTROL OF OIL BUSINESS IS ALMOST ABSOLUTE—STANDARD OIL COMPANY ESSENTIALLY A REALISATION OF THE SOUTH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY'S PLANS—THE CRUCIAL QUESTION NOW, AS ALWAYS, IS A TRANSPORTATION QUESTION—THE TRUST QUESTION WILL GO UNSOLVED SO LONG AS THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION GOES UNSOLVED—THE ETHICAL QUESTIONS INVOLVED.
FEW men in either the political or industrial life of this country can point to an achievement carried out in more exact accord with its first conception than John D. Rockefeller, for both in purpose and methods the Standard Oil Company is and always has been a form of the South Improvement Company, by which Mr. Rockefeller first attracted general attention in the oil industry. The original scheme has suffered many modifications. Its most offensive feature, the drawback on other people's shipments, has been cut off. Nevertheless, to-day, as at the start, the purpose of the Standard Oil Company is the purpose of the South Improvement Company the regulation of the price of crude and refined oil by the control of the output; and the chief
