"The Story of Hisgen and the Octopus" Published in Current Literature, vol. 45, no. 3 (Sept. 1908), pp. 270-272. Biographical sketch of Thomas L. "Honest Tom" Hisgen, 1908 Presidential nominee of the William Randolph Hearst-backed Independence Party. Together with three of his siblings Hisgen, the son of German immigrants, established The Four Brothers Axel Grease Co., building it into the largest grease factory in the USA. Approached by the Standard Oil Trust, the Hisgen brothers declined a $600,000 offer to purchase the concern and subsequently faced predatory pricing and blackmail of its customer base -- activities which forced the Hisgens to themselves enter the oil business. Nominated by the Independence Party, Hisgen hoped to garner 1 million votes, this article intimates. In fact, he gathered only a bit over 83,000 votes in the race, a poor result which effectively ended the Independence Party as a national institution. This article includes a full page portrait of Thomas Hisgen. Published in the USA prior to 1923, public domain.