The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1904, Page 5

RITC HISTORY of Standard Oil - M to control the 11 oil business in America,” i John D. Rockefeller, esident of the Standard Gil_Company of Cleve- e a, Ohio, 4n 1872 business in America,” virtual head of the America in 1904 between the expres- the hed announcement hi has tory as momen- ory ance for the economic of the country march of poli as us cal e een for the national life of thirty-two years, There ts inception and its phe- nome grovth us engine sub. quent il United r and th seria her story « Standaid Of McClure's Magazine she inaugurated the termed journalism: to the prope History eof the Standar Oil « not of these specs pe shockers, hurled forth at white heat and sud- denly ling facts. After the work had « its serial publi- cation the a ity to weigh cach friend- 3 -orporat- ing this new material and revisiig the old she has allowed her book to stand in permanent covers as an unimpas- sioned review of the growth and opera- tion of the first of the trusts ‘Miss Tarbell has gone straight original sources for her material. Ac- turacy, in so far as accuracy may ac- erue from the great mass of document- ary evidence and the testimony of in- sdividuals bearing upon the subfect, marks her every statement. From the books of private firms, from the find- ings of investigating tribunals, both State and national, from the minutes of corporations and associations, the statistics of trade, the reports of com- mercial bodies, the contracts of rail- roads, even from the sworn statements of Standard Oil officials themselves, the @uthor has taken her facts. The bulk of her sources of authority is enormous. The chance for the admission of erro- mneous and unjust deductions is great. The major part of the material has mever been turned over, and conse- .Guently pioneer work in the choosing gnd rejecting of evidence has had to be Miss Tarbell's own. With all this weight of difficulties militating against & clear and unprejudiced statement of facts, this woman who has set herself to the task of giving the story of thirty years’ war in oil brings to the reader convincing evidences of the conserva- tism and unquestionable authority of her word. Besides this chief characteristic of the work there is another which makes for the inspiriting vigor of the narra- tive. The writer has the power to focus the whole broad field of her investiga- tion into a compass such as to make vivid and pulsing before the reader’s eyes the drama of human endeavor “which spells its purpose in the three letters O-1-L. The history of oil in these thirty years past has been the record of war—war no less costly in super- human endeavor and in treasure than the strife at arms. Play and counter- play, campaign and counter-campaign, all of the arts of craft and ingenuity + have been invoked n the tremendous struggie for supremacy on thé one hand and existence on the other which has been waging between Rockefeller's * trust and the independents. This Mies Tarbell has caught with a quick recog- nition of the dramatic. Though figures, tables and statistics make the ground- work of her book, “The History of the Standerd Oil Company” is an absorb- * *ing record of human activity—a book " which holds one with its portrayal of titanic struggle. Like Green’s “History “of the English People,” this work is a to . ) | virile human document as well as a history story of Standard Oil is the story w's work, that man John D. Rockef r h verance, his tireless energy, his phenomenal skill as a tactician finance and in- ymitable purpose, which knows no let " hindrance fr moral or ethical con- . Miss Tarbell finds ro more counternart in the world's on 1: the efficacy of of hi oil trust rable to the or- an Catholic Here is the writer's antithetic characterizaticn of the most wealthy man in America Mr he he he youth. ited church d supported iiberally from He zave to its its sick. He wept with i Moreover, h unost to many out chari worthiness he satisfied. fru in his habits went to the theater, nmever He gave much time to training of his children, seeking to Gevelop in them his own habits of economy and of charity. Yet he was willing to strain nerve to ob tzin for himself special and unjust privileges from the railroads which were bound to ruin every in the cil business not sharing them with him. He was willing to array himself against the combined better sentiment of a whole industry, to oppose a popu- lar movement aimed at righting an in- justice so revolting to one's sense of fair play as that of railroad discrimi- nations. Religlous emotion and senti- ments of charity, propriety and seif- denial seem to have taken the place in him of notions of justice and regard for the rights of others.” This was the president of the Stand- ard Oil Company, who, in 1872, having absorbed all of the important rival re- fining establishments in Cleveland, be- came a party to and afterward lead- ing spirit in the South Improvement Company, the parent of the Standard ©il Trust and the initial effort at com- bination to the restraint of trade in cur industrial history. Miss Tarbeil's analysis of the organization and aims of this pooling of railroad and ofl-re- fining interests and the ultimate effects of its secret operation gives an ade- quate idea of the trust idea in its very inception. With the Erie, the Lake Shore and New York Central and the Pennsylvania railroads secret compact was made, by virtue of which the Scuth Improvement Company, as leged representative of the majority of the country’'s refining interests, was to receive discrimination in freight rates over all independent refineries. Not only were the improvement com- pany’s constituent manufacturers to receive secret rebate on shipments ac- cording to the railroad’s freight sched- ule, but for every barrel of oil carried for outside refiners a drawback equal to the rebate was to be paid into the hands of the South Improvement Com- pany. The railroads further pledged themselves to keep the party of the first part well informed as to the ship- pings made by independents by pro- viding daily full way-bills of petroleum shipped over their roads. Thus the South Improvement Company not only was permitted to ship at less cost than its rivals, but to follow closely just what business these rivals carried. Followed the oil war of 1872, which pre- sented the solid front of the producers rverywhere opposed to the machina- tions of this conibination. The produ- cers, through threatened boycotting of. the railroads, caused these corporations gav: whose w simple and ever ank wine. every man to break their contracts with the im- provement company, and the first mo- nopolistic propaganda was defeated. But, as the author shows, the spirit of the combination rcse phenix-iike from the ruins and became the foster parent of the trust to be. The author’s narrative continues to detail how, with his secret combina- tion ruined, Rockefeller boldly ad- vanced an open alliance of refiners— the “Pittsburg plan”—based, as was its progenitor, upon railread diserimina- tion. Then followed the abortive at- tempts of the oil men to make effec- tive a Producers’ Union by limiting the output. Pipe lines, laid to combat the railroads, next became a factor; a sea- board pipe line has a brief fight against the Standard and then be- comes “absorbed.” The independents try to ship to independent refineries, the Standard holds up their cars through railrosd connivance. The pro- ducers endeavor to secure the passage of an interstate commerce bill pre- venting raiiroad rebates; it is.shelved by Congress. Thus run the events of Miss Tarbell's parrative until they carry down to developments of recent ye , the apparent dissolution of the trust by order of the Ohio court in 1£88, its subsequent life under a dif- ferent formula, the reorganization of independent producers and their grouping under the Pure Company, and finally Standard O fight for the world market to-day » In her conciuding chapters upon the legitimate greatness of the Standard 0il Company and its present-day econ- c¢mic aspects the auther treats of the catholic interests which have come to belong to the trust through the great movements of its wealth and of the marvelous perfection of its complex machinery of administration—the de- sign of John D. Rockefeller. Concen- tration of authority into the hands of men of phenomenal execcutive ability, infinite economy of time, of materia and of money, the wisdom exerted in pilacing plants at strategic points in reference to transportation, daring in attempting new measures commensur- able with the quickness in discovering book, clearly, succinctly, making it one of the most interesting publications of the season. Major Seaman is the first ofseryer to convey to the outside world anv com- plete idea of the marvelous state of preparedness to which Japan had schooled herself in anucipation of the struggle which is now waging. Tac- ticians azd war correspondents have sent back reports of the reserve force in ships, men and arsenal supplies which the island empire has estab- lished as her second line of defense, but it remained with the author of this book to reveal the almost incredible painstaking which has marked Japan's effort to perfect herself for the con- fiict which has been looming on the horizon of her national affairs since the last gun in the Chinese war was fired. Japan is the first country, ac- cording to the writer's conception, tc make any adequate and thoroughly conscientious attempt to combat dis- ease all along the line from the gar- rison to the field and back to the hos- pital. As a result of the remarkable preparatory work which has been done by the medical denartment of the Mi- Fado’s milita the care of sick ana wounded consumes but little time, for £) thoroughly has preventable disease been guarded against that the per- centage of sick has been cut down almest to zero and all soldiers are in fect phrsical condition that cven the most grave, yield to treatment. In the field, as in the barracks at the medical home, power one of the notent factors of the officer makes his army’s existence. The regimen of diet prescribed admits only of that quality Tots and Delivaries coad 0% Who ¢ Pacespts of Competiter 420 1 ente not in our Dastrict VeV cur Distriet £3 weu cuipments o es— a E of o1t wew cor Lo :.ppnrlunill these are .«:::;_mu A T iy which Ida Tarbell can commend. But 7 she believes that the ethical effect of g Torriery o ,1144 2do 9% coversd 7 $2unn 63 K 74 Comprtiter ; 3 b 1e&1 H#H Balanc? ¥ot secountsd for For Yoar Tess Sow Car Lorts Flaces Tost 1oad M] m-.u(] T o] e 079 935 5'21 o H8] 1078 IL_}I 1D g — A ™M TARBEL THE HISTORY OF TH AUTHOR OF E STANDARD OIL COMPAINY * as that which has made business such Mr. Rockefeller a multi-millionaire deplorable. She says: “Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has emplayed force and fraud to secure his ends, just him by declaring ‘it's business’ Tl\dl is, ‘it's business’ has to come to be a legitimate excuse for hard dealing, sly tricks, special privileges. It is a com- mon enough thing to hear men argu- ing that the ordinary laws of morality do not apply in business. Now, if the Standard Oil Company were the only cencern in the country guilty of the practices which have given it monopo- listic power, this story never would have been written. Were it alone in these methods, public scorn would long ago have made short work of the Standard Oil Company. But it is sim- ply the most conspicuous type pf what can be done by these practice And very pertinently she adds this note of warning “Canonize ‘business success,” and men who make a success like that of the Standard Oil trust be- come national heroes! (McClure, Phillips & Co., New York; two volumes, illustrated; price $5.) THE WAR in the Far East MONG the very first books to be written about the war in the Far East is “From Tokio Through Manchuria With the Japanese,” by Major Louis Livingston Seaman, U. S. A. This officer, who is a surgeon in our army and whose work with the medical corps both in Cuba and the Philippines gave him distinction in that branch of the service, went to Japan last June primarily to make a study of the manner in which the Jap- anese conserve their army from that malign destructive force more to be dreaded than bullets, disease, and to gain an insight into the hospital and Red Cross services they are operat- ed in the Mikado's land. Being a good observer and being likewise well for- tified with good credentials, Major Seaman saw a great deal that was not germane to the interests of his pro- fession but that contained interest for the whole reading world. These two- fold observatiors he has put into his is of food which is palatable, easily digest- ed and readily converted into sinews of energy. Medical officers precede the ad- vancing army to test wells as to the potability of their waters, to post warn- ing notices in infected districts, to make analysis of all food stuffs foraged from the surrounding countr As a result of this vigilance, which reaches to the most infinitesimal detail, the loss to Japan's fighting men from preventable disease was but a fraction of one per cent in the first six months of the struggle with Russia. A silent com- mentary this unon the record of our armies in the Spanish war, where in a campaign of six weeks the relation of mortality from disease to death by bul- lets was as 14 to 1. The writer quotes a Japanese officer as saying that Japan with her 500,000 fighters is more than a match for Russia with her 2,000,000, for disease will carry off four Russians to every one slain by a bullet. Aside from the many oth®r features of the Japanese medical and commis- sary service, which win unqualified commendation from Major Seaman, he has special word of praise for the treat- ment accorded Russian prisoners. While at Maisuyama, the improvised military prison, the writer was struck with the courtesy and excellent attention ac- corded the captured soldiers of the Czar there. “Many of the prisoners declared frankly that they had never fared bet- ter in their lives,” says Major Seaman. Not all matters of medical detail are the contents of this book. As said be- fore, Major Seaman was a good ob- server and one curious to get as near as possible to the scenes of activity on the fighting lines. After leaving Japan, therefore, he made his way to Chefu, thence to Newchwang, and after the evacuation of that place by the Rus- sians he made four ineffectual but thrilling .Ifl!m!\tl to get into Port Ar- thur. It was while going by sea from Chefu to Newchwang that the author had opportunity to corroborate the news reports concerning the indiscrim- inate sowing of the open seas with mines by the Russians. Besides seeing sev- eral boats come into Chefu with float- ing mines on board which had been picked up at sea, the subject of these experiences had the opportunity of rowing within fifteen feet of a Russian contact mine which had been anchored directly in the path of vesesls sailing Dpeutral waters. He took a photograph of the devilish engine of destruction, which is reproduced in this book, and he also took down its exact position on the chart—evidence for possible conten- tions in The Hague tribunal. So full of interest is Major Seaman’s narrative that it is difficult to limit comment and excerpt to the exigencies of space. He tells how he spent several days as the guest of Chung Tzor Lin, once a chief of the Hung-hutzes (Chun Chuses), or robber bands of Manchuria, but now a general in the Chinese army. He gives some vivid pictures of the scenes attending the Russian evacua- tion of Newchwang and the subsequent Japanese occupation. His version of for De: %01 X 306 73 53 P2 —— v T 1902 1901 1%02 Gssoltne EL] 26742 b HN D. ROCKEFELLER KETCH BY VARIAN her. No clew to any other possible as- sailant of the dead man can be found. How is she cleared from all sus- Picion and the guilty one run to earth? Here is a riddle which could not even be * rl(]lculouflly simple. my dear Wat- Son,” to Sherlock Holmes himself. In following the path of a New York Ppolice renorter to the hiddén source of the mrstery the author has filled the hook chock full with sudden surprises and nerve straining suspense. False suppositions, seeming at first plausible to the acme of simplicity, are followed until they fade into absurdity. Ac- tions and attitudes on the parts of the principals remain incomprehensible un- his name well known to hundreds of readers through translations, has just been published by J. B. Lippircott ‘ompany in a large ro volume of over 400 pages. with index. The trans- lator in this case is Lady Mary Lovd, and the book is furnished with a por- trait of Ivan the Terrible. Mr. Walis- zewski devotes himself to Russia the sixteenth century, te the countr: in people, pelitical, social and intellec- tual life and to habits and customs. He addresses himself directly to the youth of Ivan, touching upon him as the first Russian Czar, d following him through the early reforms. the taking of Kazan, the conquest of Li- vonia, the struggle for the empire of the Baltic, concluding with a consid- eration of Yhe political and intellec- tual evolution, the Ivan the Terrible, and the conquest the of Siberia. There are two chapters on the court of Ivan the Terrible, on his private life and on the man and his work. The book is furnished with a bibliography and constitutes one of the most important as well as one of the most entertain- ing contribugpns to the fleld of b raphy. T i ; NewBo;KsReceived IGHTFLU Y C. Page & Co. THE HOU TH—Ride- well Cullum; L. C. Page & Boston; illus- trated; price $1 50, VER OF MADEMOL L Page A WOMAN Wileox: L. €. E LITTLE COLONEL Merrill Company. OUT TO OLD 2 Whitcomb R dianapoli THE Zangwill; t 18451 3 Ls o \ 312 "'Lv ”7' L—'—L‘ 10341 Le1E 2 the “R itelnev affair, ting-out of the Russian torpedo-b Chefu has come to be called in the language of diplomacy, is as clear | the main as any that have through the medium of the pr believes that the presence in that neu- tral port cf a Russian wire tele phy staticn justified the Japanese the belief that China could r neutrality and palliated in a m their breach of interaational courte Though Major Seaman strongl pru-Japanese in hi mpathies he has rot let his prejudices color the narrs tion of facts. His feeling for Japan, he is free to ccnfess, was inspired by the intense devotion of the people to their ruler and his cause in this war. Thus was the sentiment of Nippon's warriors put by a young officer who was taking leave of the author prior to embarkation ¢n the transport: “You people of the West love your God. You fight for your God and you die for him. Our people love their Em- peror, their Mikado. They fight for kim, they die for him. i go to die for my Emperor. Like the rest of my fel- low officers, I too have put on the white Kkimona.” (D. Appleton & Co trated by protographs in force ure is New York; ) MYSTERY of the Deepest Dye illus- FTER having endeavored to clear his shelf of a large portion of the holiday books last Sunday the writer of these columns had made solemn covenant with himself that this week’s book page should be devoted to the solid books of the sea- son exclusively. A certain novel, picke® up at random to relieve the tension of two volumes of close read- ing, assaulted this resolution succe: fully and immediately. This novel was Burton E. Stevenson’s “The Marathon Mystery.” To let another week pass without recommending this tale un- qualifiedly to the readers of these columns would weigh upon the mind of the reviewer as a distinct evidence of his incompetency. Here is a story of mystery so mathe- matically arranged in its various con- volutions of plot and reaching the de- nouement by a deductive scheme so perfectly correct that no component part of the stiry, not half of a chapter, could be lopped off:and leave the chain of narrative unbroken. This perfec- tion of cofstruction is so artfully done that not until the last page is turned does the reader begin to realize how noiselessty and harmoniously the ma- chinery of incident has moved. Abso- lutely in the dark u{o the problem's solution - until the Tast chanter is reached. with interest and speculative attention kept at the qui vive through- out the whole, one cannot but make favorable comparison between Mr. Stevenson's boqg and those tales of Edgar Allan Poe which find more or less of a lingering echo in the stories of a recently knighted and always pop- ular English author. A young New York society woman of delicate sensibilities and faultless character is found alone by the side of a murdered sailor in suite fourteen of the Marathon flats at night. She refuses to explain the cause of her presence there and declares that the murdered man was a total stranger to’ til the final solution clears all. A se ond sudden murder and jewel robbery seem 1o condergn a spotles to the electric chair; his - es him guilty; sweetheart then sudden- 1¥ the subtle finger of deduction points ven bel conclusively and condemningly to one who would be the last to invite sus- picion. In just one point is the au- thor’s skill a trifle wavering. When he introduces a deadly servent into the E during its early chapters, seem- i cant though the thing may be in its guise of a household pet, the reade: prepared to anticipate without any intuitive guidance the grisly climax of the last chapter. (J. B. Lippincott & Co., New York; illustrated; prhe $1 309 ol 555 JOTTINGS On Book and Writer pos of Mrs. Gilbert's recent in her eighty-fourth year, it is ting to reproduce Mrs. Cla ence of her, told in “A Belle of the Fifties,” published by Doubleday, Page & Co. Mrs. Clay says: “A most amusing metrical farce—Poca- hontas’—v nta acted during the winter of and ‘38, which set all Washington to ldu-’h ng. In the cast was Mrs. Gil- bert. Two of the ridiculous couplets come back to me as if they were yes- terday, reviving the amusing scenes in which they were spoken. Mrs. Gilbert's role was that of a Yankee schoolmarm whose continual effort it was to make her naughty, young charges behave themselves. *Young ' ladies,’ . the cue with that imitable austerity behind which one always feels the actress’ con- ‘the fun of the thing" is dissembling; ‘Young stand with your feet square; Miss Pocahontas, just look at your hair.'" And as she wandered off, a top- knot of feathers waving over her head, her wand with which she had been drilling her dusky maidens helq, firmly in her hand, she cut a pigeod wing which hrnu"ht forth a perfect storm of applause.” . The recent death of General Lew Wallace, author ¢f “Ben Hur,” brings freshly to mind’ the extraordinary career of this now Published by the Harpers on November 12, 1880, the book for the first year of its ex- istence showed no signs of popularity, nor did its sale improve much in the second year. Then it began to grow, and has grown steadily, until now, twenty-four vears after its first ap- pearance, the sale is greater than it has ever been. The book succeeded on its own merits, and made its way not only with the American publie, but. with the people of many other countries in which foreign transla- tions have been printed. Furthermore, and what is very remarkable in the history of this novel, it has never been issued in a cheap edition. Four- teen luxurious editions of the book have been published from time to time by the Harpers, but never cheap one, as in the case of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the sale of avhich was, of course, greatly expanded by the circumstances under which it was published, many thousand copies hav- ing been issued in paper as a tract. No edition of “Ben Hur” cheaper than the - regular $1 50 form in which it was first published has ever been made. It is estimated that the book has now sold well on to a mil- lion copies: and the royalties from it and from the play founded upon it made General ~Wallace a rich man. And every indication points te. its continued popularity for years to come. It is interesting to note that the other novels published contem- poraneously with “Ben Hur,” those that have kept alive untll now—with the excéntion of the works of Mark Twain and W. D. Howells—could be counted ‘on the fingers of one hand. “Ben Hur” has survived by reasen of its own intrinsie charm as a story. and the remarkable fineness of its work- manship, ubon which the author ex- pended patient and loving care. It is probably the most widely read novel of modern days, and it has been said that not to have read it argues oneself ill-read. “Ivan the Terrible,” bv K. Walis- zewski, whose able work in ihic bio- graphical and critical field has made a” s Sparks; York: fllustra POVERTY—Robert Hillis price $1 5 THE LACE BOOK—N. Hudson Moore; Fred- erick A Company, New York; illus- THE RHINE—Joel & ¢ Philadeiphia; PROVE Lisle de Vaux Matthewman and Clare Victor Dwiggins; Hen- ry T. Coates & Co., Iphia; iMustrated. TEDDY AND TOW Seward D. Lisle; rlom) T. Coates & adelphia; ilus- Maurice V. Samuels; JLS—Henry A. Wise New York. ~Albert Shaw; co; price $1 BOYLE O'REILLY— & Co., San Francisco; cover, price $1 25. ~Webster P. Huntington: . Columbus, Ohio: price, MORAL EDUCATION—Edward Howard Griggs: B. W. Huebseh, New York: price $2. THE HE R—Harry €. Freeman. y. San Franeisco. JTU-JIT v H. Skioner; published by Japan Publishing Company, New York; illus- trated; price $1 JIU-JITSU—Yae Kichi Yabe: published by author two volumes. THE NATURE—Charles Wag- ner: J. S. Ogilvie Company, 3 York: pries @0 cents. OW TO KNOW T STARRY HEAV- —Edward Irving Stokes Company. New York: ated: price $2. TREASURED THOUGHTS—Jetfle F. Hana- ford: the Cast Publishing Company, Brook- Iyn, N. T. MRS. MAYE ‘N STORY—Flor ence Mavbrick & Wagnalls Company, New York. THE MEASURE OF A MAN—Charles Bro- Patterson; Funk & Wagnalls Company, 20. THE BUCCAN Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York: price 1 20, ARBITRATION AND THE HAGUE COURT —John W. Foster; Houghton, Miffiin & Co., Boston: =, THE FOR CANADA—Major W Wood; A. Constable & Co., Westminster, Lon- don; price 1 guinea STEALTHY STEVE—Newton Newkirk: Jobn W. Luce & C : Mustrated WYLACKIE JAK Holt; McClure, Phillips THE HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY—Ida M. Tarbell: McClure, Phil- lios & Co.. New York; filustrated: two voi- umes: price $5. NCYCLOPEDIA OF MISSIONS—Published American Bureau of Missions: Funk & ‘agfalls Company. New York: price $5. THE MOST POPULAR COLLEGE SONGS —Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, New York: price 50 cents. ADVERTISEMENTS. From Second Floor to Gmund Floor. Tee Whitaker @ Ray Co. Are Now Located At Z11 Mission Street, Opposite Grand Opera-house, od Have an Mncreased Stock of BOOKS OF EVERY KIND. SELL WHOLESALE and RETAIL. - % |