and by location, and I was astonished that the Ventura and a dozen other companies could maintain oil supply stations over so wide a territory in competition with unlimited capital. It is a matter of enterprise in management; but the prices are fixed by Supreme Court decisions and anti-trust legislation, both practically forbidding price competition.
Every oil producer and every oil seller knows without any argument what he is up against that the Standard Oil Company can sell oil in as large quantities, as well refined, and at as low a price as he can afford and if need be a little lower.
INDEPENDENTS NOW HOLD UP OIL PRICES
The safety of the independent, therefore, is the umbrella price of the Standard Oil Company. He cannot hope to cut out the Standard Oil Company business. He has neither the capacity, the supply, nor the capital for a contest of endurance. Self-interest requires that he sell at the same price. He cannot get more. He may therefore hold his own by the location of his supply stations. If he attempts to get less he only lowers the general price and hurts himself and every other independent producer, and does not bring
