Chapter XLI: Appendix (5)

There appears on the back of this assignment of legal title the
following:

For value received, I hereby assign the corporate stocks mentioned
or referred to in the within assignment, and authorise their
transfer upon the respective corporate books to myself or my heirs.

(Signed in writing) JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.

NUMBER 55 (See page 2160)
AGREEMENT OF 1887 BETWEEN THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY AND PRODUCERS

[Proceedings in Relation to Trusts, House of Representatives, 1888.
Report Number 3,112, pages 69–70.]

Memorandum of agreement, made this first day of November, 1887,
between the Standard Oil Company of New York and the following-named
persons, partnerships, and corporations, producers of crude
petroleum, Thomas W. Phillips and others, whose names will be found
in the schedule hereto attached and made part of this agreement, as
follows:

_Whereas_, there has accumulated in past years an excessive stock of
crude petroleum, which is deteriorating in quality, and a portion of
which each year becomes sediment, valueless for any purpose, and the
carrying of which excessive stock requires the expenditure of vast
sums annually; and

_Whereas_, in consequence of the existence of said stock the price
of crude petroleum has for the past year been largely below the cost
at which the same was produced; now, in order as far as possible to
preserve the said stock from further waste, and to conserve the
public interest and our own, this agreement _witnesseth_:

That the Standard Oil Company of New York will set apart at
sixty-two cents per barrel, and hold for the use of the above-named
producers and those who shall hereafter become parties to this
agreement, as hereinafter provided, 5,000,000 barrels of
merchantable crude petroleum, of forty-two gallons each, to be sold
and disposed of in the manner hereinafter provided. The said
5,000,000 barrels of petroleum to be subject, until sold by the said
producers, to the usual assessments, storage charges, and interest
upon the same, as also interest on the price of said petroleum, at
sixty-two cents per barrel; said assessments, charges, and interest
to be added to the price aforesaid.

In consideration of which the above-named producers agree to limit
their production of petroleum, that for the year next ensuing from
this date, they or any number of them shall, for said year,
collectively produce at least 17,500 barrels of crude petroleum less
per day than they or any number of them collectively produced per
day for the months of July and August, 1887, and that they will use
every reasonable endeavour to control their production so that the
same shall be in the aggregate 30,000 barrels less per day than it
was during the said period of July and August, 1887.

If at the end of three months from the date hereof the said
reduction of 17,500 barrels per day shall be attained, to be
measured by taking the average production of the above-named
producers for the months of December and January next, and comparing
the same with their average production for the months of July and
August, 1887, a statement of the same being hereto attached and made
part of this agreement, then the said 5,000,000 barrels of petroleum
shall be delivered as fast as the same shall be sold by, upon the
order, and for the account of said producers through their executive
committee appointed by agreement between themselves, and hereinafter
named, to be paid for with interest and storage as delivered; that
the profits aforesaid upon said 5,000,000 barrels of petroleum as
sold, in accordance with the provisions of this agreement, shall, by
said Standard Oil Company and said producers’ executive committee,
be deposited with the United States Trust Company in New York City,
until the expiration of one year from the date hereof, in trust, in
accordance with and subject to the provisions of this agreement; and
in case the above-named producers or any number of them shall not
have lessened their production 17,500 barrels per day for said year
as aforesaid, then all of said profits upon said 5,000,000 barrels
of petroleum shall belong and be paid to the Standard Oil Company of
New York; and in case the said above-named producers or any number
of them collectively shall have lessened their production 17,500
barrels per day for the said year as aforesaid, then the entire
profits aforesaid upon the 5,000,000 barrels of petroleum shall be
paid to said producers’ executive committee, to be by it distributed
in accordance with agreements between themselves to such of said
producers as have fulfilled the terms of this agreement, and all
agreements between themselves relating to such distributions.

The said producers are guaranteed by said Standard Oil Company of
New York against loss within said year upon said 5,000,000 barrels
of petroleum. The lessening of 17,500 barrels per day above provided
shall embrace and include any reduction or lessening of production
by producers who shall sign contracts not to use means to increase
their production by drilling or otherwise.

Producers may become parties to this agreement within the year the
contract is to operate by signing the agreement between producers
authorising the executive committee to sign this contract on their
behalf, and having their names added hereto as parties by said
executive committee.

The following-named persons constitute the executive committee above
referred to, to wit:

(Names omitted by consent of the chairman.)

NUMBER 56 (See page 2187)
JOHN D. ARCHBOLD’S STATEMENT TO THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION CONCERNING THE
STANDARD’S OPPOSITION TO THE BUILDING OF THE UNITED STATES PIPE LINE

[Report of the Industrial Commission, 1900. Volume I, page 529.]

Mr. Lee makes a statement regarding the difficulty of his pipe-line,
the United States Pipe Line, in crossing railroads and securing
right of way to the seaboard, and makes a general statement implying
that we have instituted and carried out great obstruction to their
progress. I want to make general denial of this statement. We have
not at any time had any different relations with reference to any
obstruction or effort at obstruction of their line than would attach
to any competitor in a line of business engaging against another.
With reference to the special features referred to by Mr. Lee, and
which he attempts, by implication at any rate, to connect us with,
in the crossing of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad in New
Jersey, I want to say that the contention in that respect was
entirely at the hands of the railroad, and not at our hands in any
possible respect. They went there surreptitiously and endeavoured to
force their way, on a Sunday, over a line where they had no right,
either by private purchase or by public franchise. Having
accomplished the crossing of the road in that surreptitious way,
they stationed there an armed force to prevent the railroad company
from asserting its rights and taking out their lines, and kept that
force there for a long period. The railroad went about it in a
peaceful way, in the courts, and the final result is that the
decision is against the line, after the case has been carried up
finally to the supreme court of the state, and they must, of course,
remove their line. But any statement on Mr. Lee’s part, or any other
witness, that we had anything to do with that matter, or with
reference to any of the difficulties interposed in their progress to
the seaboard, is absolutely false.

By Mr. Phillips.

_Q._ Did your company own in fee simple the tract of ground, and was
a roadway reserved by the landholder? Was that purchased by them?

_A._ It was not my case, and I am not conversant with the details
regarding it. The fact that, after having been fought in the
newspapers and in the courts for a term of years, seeking the
sympathy of the judges as well as the public, the supreme court of
the state has ruled against them, is the best evidence, I think,
that the right was against them. I want to say with reference to our
pipe lines, that we never endeavoured to cross any man’s right of
way without first seeing him about it.

_Q._ Still, did they not go through the railroad on their own
ground, and was not this the final decision, that they had not the
right to lay a pipe line where a man had reserved a right of way
under the ground?

_A._ It was not only decided that they had no right there, but they
were ordered to remove.

NUMBER 57 (See page 2194)
TABLES OF YEARLY AVERAGE PRICES OF CRUDE AND REFINED

[All quotations up to 1899 are from the Oil City Derrick; all
quotations for 1900–1903 are from the New York Commercial.]

TABLE OF YEARLY AVERAGE PRICE OF CRUDE

In the following table is presented the highest and lowest price of
oil, the months in which these quotations occurred, and the general
average for each year. The “average” as estimated is usually the
mean price between the highest and lowest quotation of a given time.
It is sufficiently accurate for general purposes of comparison. It
would be an almost impossible task to determine a “true average”
from the reports of the daily sales that are now on record. Previous
to 1875 the quotations are given for points along Oil Creek, and
they hardly represent what the producer actually realised for oil at
the wells. From 1875 onward the trading in oil was placed on a more
satisfactory basis by the general adoption of pipe-line
certificates, and the exchange quotations show very closely the
value of the oil at the wells. When the certificate was finally
purchased by the refiner, it was subject to a uniform charge for
pipage of the oil from the wells to the nearest shipping point.

─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────
YEAR │ Highest │ Price │ Lowest │ Price │ Average
│ Month │ │ Month │ │
─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────
1859 │Sept. │ $20.00 │Dec. │ $20.00 │ $20.00
1860 │Jan. │ 20.00 │Dec. │ 2.00 │ 9.60
1861 │Jan. │ 1.75 │Dec. │ .10 │ .52
1862 │Dec. │ 2.50 │Jan. │ .10 │ 1.05
1863 │Dec. │ 4.00 │Jan. │ 2.00 │ 3.15
1864 │July │ 14.00 │Feb. │ 3.75 │ 8.15
1865 │Jan. │ 10.00 │Aug. │ 4.00 │ 6.59
1866 │Jan. │ 5.50 │Dec. │ 1.35 │ 3.75
1867 │Oct. │ 4.00 │June │ 1.50 │ 2.40
1868 │July │ 5.75 │Jan. │ 1.70 │ 3.62½
1869 │Jan. │ 7.00 │Dec. │ 4.25 │ 5.60
1870 │Jan. │ 4.90 │Aug. │ 2.75 │ 3.90
1871 │June │ 5.25 │Jan. │ 3.25 │ 4.40
1872 │Oct. │ 4.55 │Dec. │ 2.67½│ 3.75
1873 │Jan. │ 2.75 │Nov. │ .82½│ 1.80
1874 │Feb. │ 2.25 │Nov. │ .62½│ 1.15
1875 │Feb. │ 1.82½│Jan. │ .75 │ 1.24¾
1876 │Dec. │ 4.23¾│Jan. │ 1.47½│ 2.57⅝
1877 │Jan. │ 3.69⅜│June │ 1.53¾│ 2.39⅜
1878 │Feb. │ 1.87½│Sept. │ .78¾│ 1.17⅛
1879 │Dec. │ 1.28¾│June │ .63⅛│ .85⅝
1880 │June │ 1.24¾│April │ .71¼│ .94⅛
1881 │Sept. │ 1.01¼│July │ .72½│ .85¾
1882 │Nov. │ 1.37 │July │ 0.49¼│ 0.78½
1883 │June │ 1.24¾│Jan. │ .83¼│ 1.05⅞
1884 │Jan. │ 1.15⅝│June │ .51¼│ .83⅝
1885 │Oct. │ 1.12⅝│Jan. │ .68 │ .88⅜
1886 │Jan. │ .92¼│Aug. │ .59¾│ .71⅜
1887 │Dec. │ .90 │July │ .54 │ .66⅝
1888 │Mar. │ 1.00 │June │ .71⅜│ .87
1889 │Nov. │ 1.12½│April │ .79½│ .94⅛
1890 │Jan. │ 1.07⅝│Dec. │ .60¾│ .86⅝
1891 │Feb. │ .81⅜│Aug. │ .50 │ .66⅞
1892 │Jan. │ .64⅛│Oct. │ .50 │ .55½
1893 │Dec. │ .80 │Jan. │ .52⅞│ .64
1894 │Dec. │ .95¾│Jan. │ .78½│ .83¾
1895 │April │ 2.60 │Jan. │ .95¼│ 1.35¼
1896 │Jan. │ 1.50 │Dec. │ .90 │ 1.19
1897 │Mar. │ .96 │Oct. │ .65 │ .78⅜
1898 │Dec. │ 1.19 │Jan. │ .65 │ .91⅛
1899 │Dec. │ 1.66 │Feb. │ 1.13 │ 1.29⅜
1900 │Mar. │ 1.68 │Nov. │ 1.07 │ 1.35¼
1901 │Nov. │ 1.30 │June │ 1.05 │ 1.21½
1902 │Dec. │ 1.44½│Mar. │ 1.15 │ 1.23
1903 │Dec. │ 1.88 │Mar. │ 1.50 │ 1.58¾
─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────

TABLE OF YEARLY AND MONTHLY AVERAGE PRICE OF REFINED

In the following table is given the average monthly and yearly
prices of refined oil per gallon, in barrels, in New York, from
January, 1863, to December, 1903. During the years when a tax was
levied on this article of domestic production the quotations do not
include the tax:

─────────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────
│1863│1864│1865│1866│1867│1868│1869│1870│1871│1872
─────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────
Jan. │.40 │.46⅝│.70 │.57⅞│.31 │.24¾│.34⅛│.31⅜│.24⅝│.22⅝
Feb. │.38¼│.47⅛│.67¼│.48⅝│.28¼│.25 │.36⅜│.29⅞│.25⅛│.21¾
March │.34¾│.49⅛│.58¾│.41⅞│.27½│.25¾│.32⅛│.27 │.24⅛│.22⅝
April │.33¼│.54⅛│.52⅞│.40⅛│.27 │.26¼│.32¼│.26½│.23¼│.21¾
May │.39½│.59½│.51⅛│.43 │.26¾│.29⅝│.31½│.27½│.24⅝│.23⅜
June │.44½│.72 │.51½│.41⅞│.24¾│.31⅜│.31 │.27 │.25¾│.23
July │.49 │.86⅛│.52⅛│.39½│.30⅞│.34¼│.32¼│.26 │.25¾│.22⅜
Aug. │.53½│.84⅞│.52 │.44⅜│.29¼│.33 │.32½│.25 │.24⅜│.22⅜
Sept. │.58 │.75 │.58¼│.44⅝│.31¾│.31 │.32¼│.26⅛│.24⅛│.24⅛
Oct. │.52½│.63¾│.61¾│.40⅝│.34½│.30 │.32⅞│.24⅝│.23¾│.26
Nov. │.41½│.70 │.62⅝│.35¾│.27½│.30⅞│.34 │.23 │.22⅜│.27
Dec. │.46½│.72¾│.65¼│.31¼│.24¾│.32¼│.31⅛│.23 │.23 │.26
─────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────
Yearly │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
average│.44¾│.64¾│.58¾│.42½│.28⅜│.29⅛│.32¾│.26⅜│.24¼│.23⅝
─────────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────

─────────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────
│1873│1874│1875│1876│1877│1878│1879│1880│1881│1882
─────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────
Jan. │.22⅛│.13½│.12⅜│.14⅛│.24 │.12⅛│ 9 │ 7⅞│ 9¼│ 7
Feb. │.19⅝│.15 │.14 │.14¼│.18⅝│ 12¼│ 9⅜│ 7⅞│ 9¼│ 7⅜
March │.19 │.14⅞│.15 │.14½│.16 │.11⅝│ 9¼│ 7¾│ 8½│ 7⅜
April │.20 │.15⅝│.13⅞│.14 │.15¾│.11⅜│ 9⅛│ 7⅝│ 7¾│ 7⅜
May │.19¾│.13⅞│.12¾│.14⅞│.14½│.11¼│ 8½│ 7⅝│ 8 │ 7½
June │.19 │.12⅞│.12⅝│.14¾│.13¾│.11¼│ 7½│ 9⅝│ 8⅛│ 7½
July │.18⅛│.12⅛│.11½│.16⅞│.13⅜│.10¾│ 6¾│ 9⅞│ 7⅞│ 6¾
Aug. │.16½│.11¾│.11¼│.19⅞│.13⅝│.10⅞│ 6⅝│ 9 │ 7¾│ 6⅞
Sept. │.16½│.12⅛│.12¾│.26 │.14½│.10¼│ 6⅞│ 10⅝│ 8 │ 7½
Oct. │.16¼│.11⅞│.14⅛│.26 │.14⅝│ 9⅝│ 7½│ 12 │ 7¾│ 8
Nov. │.14⅛│.10¾│.13 │.26¼│.13¼│ 9⅛│ 8 │ 10½│ 7½│ 8¼
Dec. │.13½│.11¼│.12¾│.29⅜│.13⅛│ 8⅝│ 8⅝│ 9½│ 7⅛│ 7⅝
─────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────
Yearly │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
average│.18¼│.13 │.13 │.19⅛│.15¾│.10¾│ 8⅛│ 9⅛│ 8 │ 7⅜
─────────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────