The Portland daily press., 1899-06-19
PRETTY STRONG TALK.
L. N. lockwood Dsnounes. standard
0n Trust.

commission today heard g statment from
l.. NJ. Lockwood, an oil producer Of zsli.
nople. Pa. In opposition to the Standard
OIL trust
A Mr.. Lockwood declared that this COM
les into bankruptcy and ssrvituds and he
denounced the course pursued In severe
terms. de held the railroads especially
responsible for this condition Of affairs
Going back to 1879 he referred at length
to a contract made by the trunk lines
of Pennsylvania with the South Improve.
ment company. Under this contract, he
said. the freight rates ON oil were
doubled and one hall. the amount collected
was paid back as rebate; not only this
but the contracting company received
like rebate on the shipments on all other
companies. This contract be declared,
had been secretly continued by the rail-
roads with the Standard Oil company.
Mr. Lockwood was free in the use of cpl
thets, characterizing both the oil COM
pany and the railroad officials as high
waymen and brigands.
III you have. got to be robbed" he ex-
claimed, sit does not matter much
whether you are held up by Dick Turpin
with pistol or by John Rockefeller
with railroad; 1t is robbery all the
same"
He said that men who had carefully an
alyzed the testimony taken before the
Hepburn committee estimated that in 10
months time the five trunk lines of Penn
sylvania had paid the Standard company
s1l 0o0, 900 In rebates. The railroad COM
panies had, he said, completely ignored
the orders of the Interstate Commerce
commission &c cease their discrimination
in favor of the Standard company, res
toring them to the system of false billing.
IF the railroad companies, the witt
ness asked. "can control the appointment
the Supreme court what do they care for
the lawp"
The only safe plan, said Mr.. Rock
wood, was to place them under control of
the government He considered all the
railroads of the country as practically
one gigantic trust and asserted that they
were in control of our politics, contribu-
ting millions to elect legislators, senator's
and Judges and to punish those not will
ing to do their bidding. With absolute
equality over the roads, the independent
companies would drive the Standard
company into a secondary place In a
short time.
There would then, he asserted be no
more shooting down OF striking miners
for the miner could send his product to
market as cheaply as the monopolist. II
the government did not control the rail.
! ways, the railways would control the
government. He advocated the taking OF
the roads under the right of eminent do
main, paying the owners the actual value
Of their property.
AT the afternoon session, Mr.. Lockwood
stated that Judge Albert Haight OF the
New York Court of Appeals, had been
elevated to his present position by the
corporations through the use of corrup-
ton fund. He had not actually seen the
fund, and therefore the statement was
an inference only.
Mr.. Farquarhar Of the commission
protested against the character of the tes-
timony. The statement, he said, was not
testimony but pure libel.
Congressman Bell made vigorous pro-
test against the demand to eliminate any
of the testimony. 1t was not, he said.
the province of the commission to tell
a witness what he must say. 1t was
perfectly competent for any man coming
here to entertain opinions upon any of
these subjects and to advance them or to
criticize public officials.
In this connection, he said that Gov.
Larrabee of Wyoming had said that
there were two judges on the supreme
court bench who were put there for the
purpose of securing the nuIlification of
cases in which the railroads had secured
one appoin'mene o. 1uuees wnose sympa-