the Patterson case. As it was a case to be decided on purely technical matters—the rules governing elections—no sensation was looked for, but one came immediately. It was a long affidavit from James R. Keene, even more notorious then than now—there were fewer of his kind—for deals and corners and devious stock tricks, declaring that both the Patterson case and this attempt to obtain control were dictated by the "malicious ingenuity" of the Standard for the purpose of destroying the Tidewater and getting hold of its property:
"From my first connection with the company," said Mr. Keene, "it has been hampered and embarrassed in its business by the unscrupulous competition of the Standard Oil Company. When it first began to transport and deliver oil at tidewater, the refineries which purchased and refined oil were one after another bought up by the Standard Oil Company or driven out of business by vexatious and oppressive annoyances. The most private details of our business have been communicated to the officers of the Standard Oil Company, and they have, by every means in their power, interfered with our affairs. By the arrangement which they were able to make with the railroads leading from the Oil Regions, other than the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Standard Oil Company have been able to obtain a control of the business of transporting and refining oil, with the exception of that part of the business which has been carried on by the Tidewater Pipe Company and their refineries, to which it had made deliveries. Repeated efforts have been made by parties in their interest to secure the control of the Tidewater Pipe Company, and if they could succeed, the monopoly thereby secured would add many million dollars a year to their profit."
Mr. Keene's putting of the case was undoubtedly correct, but pious horror of commercial brigandage, coming from "Jim" Keene, was useful only to give joy to a cynical world, unencumbered by the possession of stock in either concern. The Keene sensation was followed by a second, an affidavit from John D. Archbold, of the Standard Oil Company, denying that his company had any interest in the present suit, but adding that for some time the officers of the Tidewater had been seeking an alliance with the Standard:
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