Ida Tarbell

“ Q. What are the refiners that are now in association of the Standard Oil?
A. The people that are working in harmony with us comprise about, I should think, 90 or 95 per cent. of the refiners.
Q. Now tell us their names, the leading ones.
A. Some of the leading ones? The Standard Oil Company; Charles Pratt and Company; the Sone and Fleming Manufacturing Company; Warden, Frew and Company of Philadelphia; the Standard Oil Company of Pittsburg; the Acme Oil Refining Company of Titusville; the Imperial Refining Company of Oil City; the Baltimore United Oil Company of Baltimore. ”

“ Chairman, I want to give you all the information that is necessary in this matter for your purposes, but it is a question in my mind whether it is a proper thing for me, even if there is no harm done by it, to divulge my business secrets.
Q. We do not ask you for your secrets; we simply ask you the general nature of this organisation. ”

“ Q. No; it is not abuse to be in harmony; there are some kinds of harmony that the law considers conspiracy.
A. Well, I have heard so.
By the Chairman.
Q. What we want to know is this: This Standard Oil Company in itself is, as we understand it, a large organisation, not very extensive, but is made so by contracts with various other organisations, that are not a part of it, by their written contract or verbal contract or understanding, or whatever you term it; we want to know whether that is not the fact, and if that is not what you refer to when you speak about working in harmony. ”