00  sTsncnfo  oil

panj,  named  as  among  them  the  principal  members  of  the
great  oil  company,  and  most  conepicuoae  of  them  all  was  the
name  of  this  denier.'

The  efficiency  with  which  this  "  partly  bom "  innocent
lived  his  little  hoar,  "  not  doing  a  dollar's  worth  of  baainess,"
was  told  in  a  Bammary  phrase  by  one  of  the  managers  of  the
Pennsylrania  Bailroad,  describing  the  condition  of  the  oil
bnaineea  in  1873 :'

"  All  other  of  onr  largest  customers  had  failed."

When  the  people  of  the  oil  regions  made  peace  after  their
nprising  it  was,  as  they  say,  with  "  fnll  assurance  from  the
Washington  committee  that  the  throwing  off  the  restrictions
from  trade  will  not  embarrass  their  investigation  (by  Congress),
bnt  that  the  Snb-Committee  of  Commerce  will,  neTerthelesa,
continue,  as  the  principle  involved,  and  not  this  particnlar  case
alone,  is  the  object  of  the  investigation." '

The  Committee  of  Commerce  did  not  "continae."  The
principal  witness,  who  had  negotiated  the  contracts  by  which
the  railroads  gave  over  the  business  of  the  oil  regions  to  a  few,
refused  in  effect,  beyond  prodncing  copies  of  the  contract,  to
be  a  witness.  Permission  was  given  by  the  Committee  of  Con-
gress dnring  its  first  zeal  to  the  Committee  of  Producers  from
Pennsylvania  to  copy  the  testimony  as  it  was  taken,  bnt  tM>
official  record  of  its  discoveries  exists.  This  transcript  was
published  by  the  prodacers,  and  copies  are  poseessed  by  a  few
fortunate  collectors.  The  committee  did  not  report,  and  in
the  archives  of  the  national  Capitol  no  scrap  of  the  evidence
taken  is  to  be  fonnd.  All  has  vanished  into  the  bottomleai
darkness  in  which  the  monopoly  of  light  loves  to  dwell.
■  Tettimooj,  Trusts,  Oongresa,  1668,  p.  189.
