ay call the waste of competition. In the argument
presented by the Standard Oil Trust before the House Committee on
Manufactures in the summer of 1888, occurs the following statement of
the work which that monopoly has done in cheapening production:

"The Standard Oil Trust offers to prove by various witnesses,
including Messrs. Flagler and Rockefeller, that the disastrous
condition of the refining business and the numerous failures of
refiners prior to 1875 arose from imperfect methods of refining,
want of co-operation among refiners, the prevalence of speculative
methods in the purchase and sale of both crude and refined
petroleum, sudden and great reductions in prices of crude, and
excessive rates of freight; that these disasters led to
co-operation and association among the refiners, and that such
association and co-operation, resulting eventually in the Standard
Oil Trust, has enabled the refiners so co-operating to reduce the
price of petroleum products and thus benefit the public to a very
marked degree and that this has been accomplished:

"1. By cheapening transportation, both local and to the seaboard,
through perfecting and extending the pipe-line system, by
constructing and supplying cars with which oil can be shipped in
bulk at less cost than in packages, and the cost of packages also
be saved; by building tanks for the storage of oil in bulk; by
purchasing and perfecting terminal facilities for receiving,
handling, and reshipping oils; by purchasing or building steam tugs
and lighters for seaboard or river service, and by building
wharves, docks, and warehouses for home and foreign shipments.

"2. That by uniting the knowledge, experience, and skill, and by
building manufactories on a more perfect and extensive scale, with
approved machinery and appliances, they have been enabled to and do
manufacture a better quality of illuminating oil at less cost, the
actual cost of manufacturing having been thereby reduced about 66
per cent.

"3. That by the same methods, the cost of manufacture in barrels,
tin cans, and wooden cases has been reduced from 50 to 60 per cent.

"4. That as a result of these savings in cost, the price of refined
oils has been reduced since co-operation began, about 9 cents per
gallon, after making allowance for reduction i