After the Standard Oil Company had secured control of the various pipe lines of the oil regions, it frequently lowered the price of crude oil to such an extent as to make its production unprofitable. It even refused to buy oil, basing its refusal upon the ground that the railroad companies failed to furnish cars for its transportation. When the well-owners had their tanks filled, they had the choice to let the oil run away or to be at the expense of closing up their wells. In one instance, however, when their ruse threatened to cause a riot, several hundred cars were brought to the wells within a few hours. The Standard Oil Trust, not satisfied with the monopoly of the wholesale trade, even tried in places to control the retail trade by peddling oil at private houses. This method of destroying competition was chiefly resorted to where independent dealers obtained their supply by a water route. That many of the deeds of the Standard are dark is evident from the fact that its members, when summoned by the Hepburn committee, declined to testify, lest their testimony be used to convict them of crime. Officials of the trust have bribed or attempted to bribe employes of rival firms, for the purpose of ruining their business. By its peculiar methods the company has been successful in courts of justice and legislative halls, and has enjoyed an impunity for its conspiracy against the public that is without precedent in America. It has accumulated a capital of more than $100,000,000, and it is even claimed that for years its annual dividends have exceeded in amount the capital actually invested. This is not at all strange when it is considered that they have levied upon the producers, consumers and transporters alike. Mr. Cassat testified before the New York investigating committee that in eighteen months the railroads had paid the Standard in rebates no less than $10,000,000. And the very payment of these enormous rebates enabled the Standard to decrease the price of oil to the producer and to increase it to the consumer.