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.