The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-05

oil throughout the country. AIter oe. such oil is usually from 2 cents to 5 cents gallon higher in the non competitive than in the competitive ,nii oii IS about one-haif a cent per gallon. 1t Is clear that exorbitant profits are obtained in the non competitive neids. This monopolistlc control extends rom the well of the producer 10 the ooor step Of the consumer:
 The facts regarding freight rates have been obtained by the examination records. With but a single important exception, railroad companies have, upon application of the Bureau of Cor. porations. given access to recoros r,. Q. . New York Central Company refused for itself and its affiliated lines to give access to records of State rates. Al officials of the Standard oil Company stated that that company had not oo. tained in recent years and was not now obtaining any rebate or otnes against its competitors. They invited the most careful Investigation of the subject. ,, Upon the request of it's attorney, all the essential facts discovered by the Bureau were presented to the com pany at the close of the investigation, and an exhaustive statement relating thereto was made by its chief trafhc officer. There was no denial of the facts found, but explanations of par ticular situations were offered, and It | any violation by the Standard of the | letter or spirit of the interstate com merce law A most careful reyiew or d the facts f and the explanation ieads to the following conclusion:
 Secret Rates Given. The Standard oil Company has habit. ually received from the railroads, ana Is now receiving, secret rates and other II ..aaf -Ax..aw a During 1904 the Standard saved about three-quarters of a million dollars through the secret rates discovered by the Bureau. and or course there may has not discovered. This amount rep resents, the difference between the open rates and the rates actually paid. Many in violation of the interstate commerce law. and others, whether technically Illegal or not, had the same erect upon secret rates were applied by means of rebates
 These determinations have been so long continued, so secret. so ingenious and so large in amount as to make 1t certain that they were due to concerted action by the Standard and the rail- roads.
 The Standard OH Company Is re- ceiving unjust determinations In open rates.
 The published rates from the leading much lower than rates from the ship ping points of its competitors. The ad- vantage to the Standard over its com petitors from such open discriminations that obtained through the secret rates.
 If an unfair discrimination be ob- tained by one shipper through de. prohibited by law, that fact shows that the law is defective and should be strengthened; 1t does not show that the discrimination is proper or just.
 The following are a few of the most important discriminations and the methods by which they were obtain
 (1) For about ten years the New England territory has been in control of the Standard oil Company by req son son of the refusal ,a or the & New 6 nerR; x; the Boston and Maine road, on all but few divisions, to prorate-i. e.. to join in through rates-on oil shipped ed means of the adjustment of published rates.
 The Standard is entitled to the ad- vantage of its water shipping points in reaching New England, but that ad- vantage was greatly and unfairly in creased when the railroads, by refus- | ing to prorate, virtually kept indepen- dent refiners from using all rail routes. The refusal to prorate increased the rail rates from the West from to
  railroads do prorate on all other com modities: their refusal to do so In the case of oil amounted to imposing a substantial tax on all consumers in the region they cover, and Is also a heavy discrimination against the smaller re- liners.
 been able to absolutely control for many years the sale of oil in the north eastern part of New York and in a portion of Vermnnt by means of secret rates from It's refineries at Clean and
 The Pennsylvania Railroad has giv- en the Standard rate of cents a while the independent refineries situa- ted in territory adjacent to Clean were given a rate of 3S cents barrel: By means of this Scent rate, In combina- tion with a rate from Rochester to Norwood, N. Y, virtually secret and very low rate from Norwood, N. Y., to Burlington, and and secret local S, rates ates to supply central and northern Yer mont with oil at a rate of from 10 to q cents per hundred pounds, whereas no independent refiner could reach that territory from western Pennsylvania save a rate varying from 33 to 50 cents per hundred pounds. 1904 by the secret rate from Clean tc Rochester alone was $115,OOO. Thls and other less important rates from Clean were unknown to the indepen- dent refiners, and were not published on the ground that they were wholly State rates; yet in fact they were used for oil consigned to points beyond the State boundary of New York. Furth CT more, all the shipments from Clean on these secret rates were blind-billed -i. e., the rates were not shown on the waybills.
 maintained absolute control of almost the whole section of the country south of the Ohio River and east of the Mis;; sissippi by means of secret rates and open determinations in rates from Whiting, Ind.
 rate from whiting; Ind, the great wes- tern refinery of the Standard, to Bir- mingham. Ala, was A cents per hun dred pounds. For at least ten years the Standard. by means of a secret Function, Tenn, over the lines of lne Chicago and Eastern Illinois, the Ilii- nois Central, and the Southern Rail- way, has shipped oil to Birmingham for 29 1-2 cents. The Toledo competi- to, no farther distant, had to pay
 great area in the South has been reached by this same secret combtna- tion at rates averaging e-foufth less than the published rates. The total saving to the standaardd ard % on tnese nesg rates
 Again, the open rate from Whiting to Evansville, ind, has been for many years ii cents. The Standard has for about ten years shipped oil to Evans ville for local use and for many points beyond in the Southeast at so-called state rates of 6 cents and l-2 cents. The freight paid by the Standard In this case has been about SlO'OOO per wear less than the open rate. .-
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