without concluding that we have here an example of a supreme
business intelligence working in a field which gave the widest
possible scope of action.

A high quality of organization, however, does not completely
explain the growth of this monopoly. The Standard Oil Company was
the beneficiary of methods that have deservedly received great
public opprobrium. Of these the one that stands forth most
conspicuously is the railroad rebate. Those who have attempted to
trace the very origin of the Rockefeller preeminence to railroad
discrimination have not entirely succeeded. Only the most hazy
evidence exists that the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews, and
Flagler greatly profited from rebates. In fact, refined oil was
not transported from Cleveland to the seaboard by railroad until
1870, the year that this firm dissolved; practically all of the
product then went by way of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal.
Possibly the Rockefeller firm did get occasional rebates on crude
oil from the oil regions to the refineries, but so did their
competitors. It is therefore not likely that such favors had
great influence in making this single firm the most successful in
the largest refining center. With the organization of the
Standard Oil Company, however, rebates became a more important
consideration.

The turning-point in the history of the oil industry came when
the Rockefeller interests acquired the Cleveland refineries. The
details concerning this act of generalship are fairly well known.
The South Improvement Company is a corporation that necessarily
bulks large in the history of the Standard Oil. Mr. Rockefeller
and his associates have always disclaimed the parentage of this