The great oil octopus

About this book

"The great oil octopus" by Anonymous is an investigative exposé written in the early 20th century. It probes the rise and global reach of the Standard Oil Trust, alleging that its monopoly was forged through secret railway rebates, discriminatory freight rates, control of terminals and pipelines, espionage, intimidation, and systematic bribery. The work profiles leading figures such as John D. Rockefeller, H. H. Rogers, and J. D. Archbold, and maps a dense web of domestic and foreign subsidiaries that extend the Trust’s power.

The opening of this exposé sets its purpose: to gather scattered evidence into a clear account of Standard Oil’s methods at home and abroad. After a vivid scene of the Trust’s imposing London headquarters and brief portraits of its principals, the author inventories the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and a sprawling network of refining, lubricating, pipeline, tank car, gas, and marketing companies worldwide. The narrative then establishes the core mechanism of dominance—the secret rebate—recounting Cleveland refiners’ discoveries, Congressional testimony, and the 1872 South Improvement Company contracts that granted drawbacks, shipment data, and protective rate manipulations. Subsequent early chapters show how these advantages fueled rapid buyouts in Cleveland, covert control of New York harbor terminals, and published “equalization” rates that penalized independent shipping points; they also describe the quiet birth of the trust structure, enforced secrecy agreements, evasive or false testimony, and documented bribery via the Archbold letters to senators, judges, and editors. The section closes with cases of obstruction and force against rival pipelines and the Buffalo lubricating oil affair, where attempted sabotage and conspiracy charges surfaced alongside civil settlements.