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(From the WSJ) "In 1923, William McMaster, then governor of South Dakota, called the price of gas in his state -- 26.6 cents a gallon (equal to about $3.16 today) -- "no less than highway robbery." Late that summer, he asked Standard Oil Co., which supplied most of his state's gas, to reduce its price. When Standard said no, Mr. McMaster decided to cut out the middleman. Using public funds, Gov. McMaster bought 160,000 gallons of cut-rate gas from a Chicago distributor and began selling it at a state depot for 16 cents a gallon ($1.94 now). He also announced that he planned to buy an additional half-million gallons and pump them at cost from several other state-owned stations. A day after Mr. McMaster announced his idea, Standard Oil reduced gas prices in South Dakota to 16.6 cents a gallon. As governors of other Midwestern states sent telegrams to Standard Oil demanding the same deal, the price cuts spread to several other states. Eventually, Mr. McMaster and Standard negotiated a price of about 20 cents a gallon."

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16y ago

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