The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-22

you, at any time, get legal evidence
of any such willful and deliberate vio-
lation by any officers of the Atchison.
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad or any
other road running west of Chicago
of the injunction of the Colorado Fuel
case, or of the injunction in the Inter
national Harvester company case, you
VIII, OF course, proceed as you have
already proceeded in the Chicago beef
packing cases. But at present not only
has there been no such evidence pro-
duced, but there has been no attempt
to produce such evidence and as re-
CARDS Mr. Morton there is seemingly
conclusive testimony to the contrary
You will not, however, take action
against any official of the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe railroad which
you do not take against the official
of any other railroad under precisely
similar circumstances.
Corporations to Be Prosecuted.
'In both this Colorado Fuel case
and in the international Harvester
case, direct that proceedings for con-
by the government. Whether, as the
cases develop, proceedings against in
dividual officers become necessary,
must depend in each instance upon
whether testimony is obtained show
ing that such individual officer has
either by act or connivance, been per-
sonally guilty in the matter If there
are any railroads guilty Of the prac-
llCCS winch we nave 6lJOlnGQ OLneT
railroads for following, but which
have not themselves been enjoined
proceedings should be begun to put
them under a similar restraint.
You have expressed your doubt as
to whether the Injunction granted IS
in sufficiently explicit terms to cover
either the case of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe or the similar case of
the international Harvester company.
agree, however, with your feeling
IL
an effort should be made to obtain the
judgment of the court on the ques-
ton. Sincerely Yours.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Hon. William H. Moody. attorney
general"
NIorton's Denial.
In a letter to President Roosevelt
dated June last, Secretary Morton
reviewed the rebate case at length.
He said:
MY Dear Mr.. President: Now that
/ have rendered and you have accept
ed my resignation of the position of
the secretary of the navy, I wish to
make a statement in regard to the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe-Colorado
Fuel & Iron company alleged rebate
case, which has occupied SO much at
tention and has been made the occa-
sion of SO much unjust criticism of the
Atchison company's management and
of myself.
he arrangement ISLGAIEQ 70 Was
entered into the year 1901 prior to
the time that the restraining orders
enjOining the western railroads from
cutting rates or departing from pub
ished tariffs was issued and prior to
the passage of the Elkins bill.
THE people chiefly interested in the
smelling and mining business of South
ern Arizona and Northern Mexico
were large consumers of coal and coke.
They were dissatisfied with the quality
of fTn on1Fn GETTING from fh q
ovens along the line of the AtchiSon
railroad in Colorado and threatened
to use eastern coke exclusively or build
a railroad of their own to coal proper
ties which they might obtain unless
low prices We're made. These same
people were making all sorts of expert
ments with fuel oil, with the idea of
substituting it altogether if possible
for coal, and they did 1t with such
good effect that in part they Gid sub
stitute oil for coal, thereby cutting
down the amount OF coal consumed.
All of these things taken in connection
with the undoubted financial ability
of the people interested to build adj
ditional railroads and develop either
coal or oil fields nenaced a traffic
worth nearly 100000 year to the
Atchison system; and solely for the
protection of the railroad so far as its
officers were concerned, an under
standing was entered into between the
railroad the Colorado Fuel company
and the Ell Paso & Southwestern peo-
pie, the terms of which were:
The Rebate Deal.
1.-THE Colorado Fuel company was to
supply the coal at very low price at
the mines in Colorado, $1.15 per ton;
this is all they received for the coal,
and there was nothing additional paid
them in the way of rebate or other
wise.
s'2-The railroad company was to
haul the coal at a very low rate to FL
Paso and Deming. the rate being $3.50
per ton. This was in reality a divis-
ion of a rate not usually published.
"S-The Ell Paso & Southwestern peo-
pie were to receive and pay for the
coal $4.05 per ton at Ell Paso or Dem
ing, and it was to be used by the rail-
road itself and the industries along its
line.
1.-THE tariff covering this arrange
ment was published SO as to show the
freight rate to be S4.05 per ton instead
of the delivered price at Ell Paso and
Deming, and did not separate the
freight rate from the cost of the coal
al the mines as it should have done.
Until the investigation of the case by
the interstate commerce commission I
did not know personally how the mat
ter was being handled, as far as the
publication of the tariff was concerned.
My own connection with the case was
to see that the tariff was secured to
the AtchisOn rails and after that de-
tails were left to subordinates. Thou
sands of tariffs are published every
year.
Good Thing for All Concerned.
when the arrangement was entered
into the Colorado Fuel company owned,
operated or controlled as general agents
all the coal properties on the Atchison
line in Colorado from the district in
which the rate applied, or, in other
words, it was the only shipper of coal
from that district over the Atchison
rails and there was no unjust discrim-
nation against any other producer It
was a good thing for the coal district
and for the state of Colorado as well
as for other parties interested in the
contract. The following year or in 1902.
the injunctions were issued. I suppose
it was not known to you, certainly not
to the public generally, that it was the
testimony which I gave before the in
terstate commerce commission on the
practices of western railroads so far as