They assert--and their assertion is doubtless true--that the only responsible begetters were Thomas A.Scott, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and certain refineries in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia which, though they were afterwards absorbed by the Standard, were at that time their competitors.

These refiners and the Pennsylvania, over which the Standard Oil then was making no shipments, thus represented a group, composed of railroads and refiners, which was antagonistic to the Rockefeller interests.

The South Improvement Company was an association of refiners with which the railroads, chiefly the Pennsylvania, the New York Central, and the Erie, made exclusive contracts for shipping oil.
Under these contracts rates to the seaboard were to be generally raised, though the members of the South Improvement Company were to receive liberal rebates.

The refiners of Cleveland and Pittsburgh were to get lower rates than the refiners located in the oil regions.

But the clause in these contracts that caused the greatest amazement and indignation was one which gave the inside group rebates on every barrel of oil shipped by its competitors.
It would be difficult to imagine any transaction more wicked than these contracts.