escribed.
Their competitors could rage, hold public meetings, start riots,
threaten to lynch Mr. Rockefeller and all his associates, but they could
not long survive in face of these advantages. The only way in which
the smaller shippers could overcome this handicap was by acquiring
new methods of transportation. It was this necessity that inspired the
construction of pipe lines; but the Standard, as already described,
succeeded in absorbing these just about as rapidly as they were
constructed.

Not only did the Standard obtain railroad rebates but it developed the
most death-dealing methods in its system of marketing its oil. In
these campaigns it certainly overstepped the boundaries of legitimate
business, even according to the prevailing morals of its own or of any
other time. While it probably did not set fire to rival refineries, as
it has sometimes been accused of doing, it undoubtedly did resort to
somewhat Prussian methods of destroying the foe. This great corporation
divided the United States into several sections, over each of which it
appointed an agent, who in turn subdivided his territory into smaller
divisions, each one of which likewise had its captain. The order
imperatively issued to each agent was, "Sell all the oil that is sold
in your district." To these instructions he was rigidly held; success in
accomplishing his task meant advancement and an increased salary, with
a liberal pension in his old age, whereas failure meant a pitiless
dismissal. He was expected to supervise not only his own business, but
that of his rivals as well, to obtain access to their accounts, their
shipments, and their customers. It has been asserted, and the assertion
has been supported by considerable evidence, that these agents did not
hesitate to bribe railroad employees and in this way get access to their
competitors' bills of lading and records of their shipments, and that
they would even bribe dealers to cancel such orders and take the oil
from them at a lower price. This information laid the foundation for
those price-cutting campaigns that have brought the name of the Standard
Oil into such disfavor. And when the Standard cut, it cut to kill; the
only purpose was to drive the competitor from the field, and, when this
had been accomplished, the price of oil would promptly go up again. The
organization of "bogus companies," started purely for the purpose of
eliminating competitors, seems to have been a not infrequent pra