The Standard Oil Company
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Booklet courtesy of Richard Blacher.
Pictures and Description courtesy of Paul Jackson.
The Standard Oil Company
by Elbert Hubbard, 1910
Dard Hunter Stylized Octopus
This booklet measures 8" x 6" and has 14
pages. I like the variant purple covers on this issue.
In 1910, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company was battling efforts by the
government to break up the huge organization, which contended that it was in
violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Although the trust itself had been
previously dissolved, the many different affiliates of the company still
retained a monopoly in the oil industry. No doubt sensing the opportunity for
some business, Elbert Hubbard wrote a piece in "The Fra" that praised the work
of Standard Oil and defended it from the many words of criticism that it had
been receiving. Of course, a business Little Journey soon followed, with
Standard Oil commissioning a reprint of the article. Dard Hunter designed a
special cover for the pamphlet, with artwork that bore a strange resemblance to
an octopus. Symbolic of the company's monopolistic stranglehold on the nation's
economy, this animal was used to depict Standard Oil in many a critical article
and cartoon. Whether done as a joke, or as a statement of the artist's true
feelings about the company, the illustration was supposedly caught by Hubbard
before the booklet went to press. He allowed it to be printed though, saying
that the Standard Oil people would never notice. Evidently they didn't notice,
but it made no difference, as the Supreme Court ruled against the company the
following year. Printed by the Roycrofters in East Aurora, New York in 1910.
Size 6" x 8" with 24 pages. A very unusual and hard to find booklet.
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