The Mena Weekly Star

TROUBLE BREWING FOR

STANDARD OIL COMPANY

Suits for Damages Aggregating $250,000,000 to be Filed if Recent Decision is Upheld.

Springfield, Mass., Dec. 22.—"Five or six hundred suits against the Standard Oil company involving claims for damages of $250,000,000 or more will surely be filed if the circuit court decision ordering the dissolution of the oil monopoly is upheld," was the statement made by Thomas L. Hisgen, president of the Independent Petroleum Makers' association of the United States, and also president of the Four Brothers Independent Oil company, the most aggressive competitor of the Standard Oil company in the East.

"We are preparing cases on the assumption that the highest court will sustain the circuit court decision," continued Mr. Hisgen.

Mr. Hisgen said the actions would be brought under section seven of the Sherman anti-trust law, under which the Standard Oil company stands convicted, which is as follows:

Any persons who shall be injured in his business or property by any other person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be unlawful by this act may sue therefor in any circuit court of the United States in the district in which the defendant resides or is found without respect to the amount in the controversy and shall recover threefold the damage by him sustained and the cost of suit, including a reasonable attorney's fee.

"It's a little more than 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' you see," explained Mr. Hisgen.

"Specifically, the Standard Oil company will be charged with depressing the price of crude oil in certain parts of the country, notably Oklahoma."

Rough estimates of experts, Mr. Hisgen said, show that the average light Oklahoma oil is really worth about $1 a barrel against its market price of 45 cents.

Taking the difference between the average price paid for Oklahoma light crude in five years and its actual value based on the maximum price of Pennsylvania crude makes $68,000,000, the Independents say, the Standard took from the producer and did not pay for.