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Show INVESTIGATION INTO THE :MEM01)S -S OF THE STANDARD OIL-COMPANY j;lS ORDERED BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT Directs Commissioner Garfield Gar-field to Begin Work at Once; the Inquiry Will Be Rigid and Comprehensive. BULLETIN-. WASHINGTON, Feb. 16. President Roosevelt has directed James B. Garfield, Commissioner of Corporations of the Department of Commerce and Labor, to begin immediately the oil investigation requested by the House of Representatives yesterday in a resolution adopted unanimously. The Investigation, by direction of the President, will be rigid and comprehensive. com-prehensive. The President has directed a letter to Commissioner Garfield, in which he has given his directions and presented in outline his views. The inquiry will be pressed as rapidly as possible. The scope of the investigation and the time it will occupy cannot be indicated at this time. . Representative Campbell of Kansas, the author of the resolution adopted adopt-ed by the House, had a conference with President Roosevelt today. Mr. - Campbell's idea is that the investigation should concern particularly , the situation in the Kansas field, but he expressed to the President his belief that the Inquiry once begun would extend to the operations of the Standard Stand-ard Oil company in the Beaumont field of Texas and perhaps to other fields. ' - ' - , " " ' ' TOPEKA. Kan.. Feb. 16. Gov. Hoch declines to say whether or not he will sign the bill providing for the erection by the State of an oil refinery, passed by the House .yesterday. The Governor and his friends hoped, it is said, to defeat de-feat the measure, but the fact that the House passed It by such an overwhelming overwhelm-ing majority will. It Is believed, deter J. him from Vetoing it Affect All. Combines.' . ' The two bills passed by the House yesterday affect not only the Oil trust, so-called, but other combines. The freight rate bill passed makes the railroads rail-roads a common carrier, arid in this way the Oil trust as well as otner trusts are to be fought. The antl-dls- crimination bill, which has been set for. consideration tomorrow, is said to have enough votes to Insure its passage. This measure was drawn up with the Intention Inten-tion of preventing any trust from entering en-tering Kansas and underselling the State. : Attitude of Investigation. Speaker Stubbs, in explaining bis vote against the reflnery bill, is believed to have expressed the sentiment of the adt ministration on that measure when he said: ) - The Legislature of Kansas has ever-turned ever-turned the traditions of history. It is an alarming situation. This is only the beginning and nobody dare say where this frenry will lead us. It may go too far. The men supporting this bill have not looked far enough ahead. Question of Best Methods "Our fight here has been compared with the fight of Japan against Russia. Rus-sia. One Is a small country and the other large, and the courage of Japan has been lauded, but do you know that Japan spent ten years preparing for this war? We have deliberated two weeks and now decide that "we are able to cope with the Standard Oil trust. We all want to defeat the trust. It Is simply sim-ply a question of the best method. "If this reflnery Is managed right It may make money for the State, but If It Is managed like most of the State institutions, in-stitutions, it will be a failure." After Oil Monopoly. WASHINGTON'. Feb. 16. Secretary Hitchcock today gave out a statement arraigning as a "gigantic monopoly" the present lease by the Indian Territory Illuminating Il-luminating Oil company of the right to prospect for oil and gas throughout the entire area of the Osage Indian reservation, reserva-tion, and . explaining the agreement leached several days ago. as announced In the Associated Press dispatches for tutting tut-ting off morn than one-half of the lands operative under this lease during the next ten years. |