Analysis of the Standard Oil Trust

[The Standard Oil Trust] is the most perfectly developed trust in existence. . . . The perfection of the organization of [it], the ability and daring with which it has carried out its projects, make it the preeminent trust of the world. . . . So long as the Standard Oil Company can control transportation as it does today, it will remain master of the oil industry. . . .

“. . . The ethical cost of all this is the deep concern. We are a commercial people. . . . As a consequence, business success is sanctified, and, practically, any methods which achieve it are justified by a larger and larger class. All sorts of subterfuges1 and sophistries2 and slurring over of facts are employed to explain aggregations3 of capital whose determining factor has been like that of the Standard Oil Company, special privileges obtained by persistent secret effort in opposition to the spirit of the law, the efforts of legislators, and the most outspoken public opinion.”