The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-07

ncials or stockholders ever In a position,
as railroad officials where they can
give favors 10 the Standard Oil COM
pany in its shipments7
Al am glad you asked that ques-
ton, sir I do not think it, but I know
Mr. Rice wishes to give that impress
sion, and 7 can say in reply that since
I have had any knowledge of railroad
rates on the Standard Oil company s
! business no official of the Standard Oil
4 company who is connected with rail-
roads has ever made rate or arrange
ment for the Standard OIL company,
nor have any of those gentlemen who
! are connected and have interests with
/ railroads. ever asked me to give any
J undue or unreasonable, or, in fact, any
/ share OF the Standard Oil company s
/ business over such a railroad. In other
/ words, the Standard Oil con1pany's bus
/ mess stands on its own merits; and, as
I before said. none of these gentlemen
I who may or may not have interests in
these various railroads have ever made
i a rate or made an arrangement for
Standard Oil company business. That
/ business is done by me or by the proper
4 party in whose territory or district the
/ question may arise.
Q.-Should you be sure to know
1 whether that was so or not?
Al should know. If any of the gen
tIemen who have large railroad inter-
/ ests, as alleged, made q. tariff or ar
Tangement with a railroad for our bust
ness, I certainly should know and I
1 should be advised OF it, as I am in the
| proper department that has record of
those rates and should have to know,
necessarily.
DO you understand that ship
ments of the Standard Oil company
/ have not been influenced toward GER
tain lines by the fact that the officers
/ of the Standard Oil were reputed to be
/ large owners of the stock of these
/ lines?
An no way. sir. And you can
! readily see that if the Standard Oil
company's business was run on the
basis of favoring the individual inter
| ests of the different stockholders Of
| the Standard Oil company, the COM
pany's business itself would neces-
sarily suffer.
Q.=Is it true that officers of the
Standard Oil company have Offices in
/ different railroads?
/ At is true that Mr.. William
/ Rockefeller, for instance, is a director
I IN some of the railroads. He probably
/ also is bondhOlder in the United
/ States, but there is no connection be-
tween such interests and the inter-
| ests of the Standard Oil company or
the business of the Standard OIL COM
''Such evidence should satisfy any
/ candid mind of the incOrrectness Of
| DR.. Gladden's assertion. It will prob
/ ably not satisfy a mind like Dr.. Glad
8
/ statement that the denial that rebates
/ have been extOrted since the interstate
! commerce law was passed is not cred
/ ible. I know from statements made
/ to myself by parties implicated that
such rebates have been extorted by
] other corporations. I doubt if the
/ Standard is more virtuous than the
rest
ION a mind 50 prejudiced. evidence
! is lost. DR.. GLADDEN. seems to know
/ something of cases in the courts on the
( subject of rebates, and should know
/ Of several important cases tried in the
courts of Pennsylvania against a
7 prominent railroad to recover penal
4 ties for granting rebates, in which
4 every effort was made to prove re-
/ bates paid to the Standard Oil COM
pany. No such proof could be pro-
duced. but it was proved that rebates
were allowed and paid to two of the
! Standards principal competitors. This
may serve to remove Dr. Gladden.
doubt whether the Standard is more
virtuOus than the rest.
''Those who contend that the
j Standard has been built by means of
/ railway discrimination wilfully shut
/ their eyes to the real causes of the
/ Standards success. and are poor stu
dents of the problem of modern in
dustrial combinations.
IF this, the only specific allegation
made against John D. Rockefeller is
proven to be false, it should make the
public, and particularly the religious
public. more careful and Charitable in
its allegations. No doubt many have
/ been prejudiced against Mr.. Rookie
Teller by sensational writer's. whose
articles accompanied by portraits and
carfcatures are intended to create the
impression that Mr.. Rockefeller was
principal in the affairs relating to the
organization Of the gas and copper
| companies, although no fact showing
such connection is stated
1.-THE Standard Oil company has al
ready denied that it had any connec-
ton or interest. directly or Indirectly
in the organizat ton of these corpora
lions. and on the best authority, the
same denial is now made for John D.
Rockefeller. He had no connection
with nor interest in. directly or indf-
rectly. the organization of these cor
porations. s. c. r. DODD"