The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-11
Corruption of Various Degrees
 Charged Against the Trust
SEVERAL WITNESSES EXAMINED
Bribery of Railroad Clerks, Short Measure, Selling of Three Differ ent Kinds of oil From One
 Tank, Etc, Charged.

Chicago. May 10.-Corruption of railroad employees and agents of independent oil companies. dishonest methods of procuring land leases. the giving of short measure and the selling of three different kinds of oil out of the same tank and misrepresen- tations to the quality of oil sold, were charged against the Standard oil com pany at today's hearing before the in- terstate commerce commission.
 Incidentally it was charged that the Frisco gives a rebate of ? cents per hundred to the Standard oil company when 1t charges competitors of that cor poration ten times as much for the same haul. The inquiry was held under an orr der of Congress, and the session held here today was along the same lines as that held some time ago in Kansas City
 The principal witness of the day was E, M. Wilhoit of Springfield. Mo-, former ly for ten years agent of the Standard oil company at Topeka, Kan. It was he who made the charges of bribery and dishonesty against the company, and said that the Frisco road dlscriminated in fa- vor of the Standard oil company. Other witnesses for the day were H. c. Deran of Freemont, Ohio; E. P Ripley, president or the Santa Fe railroad. and NJ Maxou former agent of the Standard oil com pany in Illinois. The last witness tes- tmony in many instances was the same as that given by MT Wlhoit.
 First Witness Called.
 The hearing was conducted by Attor- neys J. F. Marchand and F. S Monett for the government and Commissioners Clements, Cockrell and Prouty head the evidence. John s. Miller and A. G. Eddy appeared for the Standard oil company Commissioner Clements at the commence ment of the hearing announced that it was held in pursuance of a resolution passed by Congress, and that the present session was a continuance of tho inves- tigation conducted sometime ago at Kan sas City.
 The first witness was F. M wilhoit now an independent oil operator, but ten years ago an agent of the Standard oil company. He testified that while in tho employ of the Standard oil company he had. In following out the instructions of his superior officers bribed clerks fin the offices of railroads and employees of in- dependent oil concerns in order to ob- tain information and details of the busi- ness done by the rival Standard Oil com pany He declared that agents of the Standard oil company are held personally responsible for all oil sold Tn their ter ritory by Independent companies, and that drivers of tank wagons are expected to keep up their stock by selling 205 to POS gallons from a wagon load of 200 gallons. He said that the actual tests of the pro- ducts of the Standard oil company to determine the quality are carefully guard ed, and that when 1t was found necessary to cut the price to meet the figure of a | p1 fsna of oil substituted.
 Wilhoit Read Letter. Mir Wilhoit said that frequently three grades of oil were sold from the same tanks by agents of the Standard oil com pany
 In support of the statement he had made Mir Wilhoit read a letter purport- ing to have been written October 26 1S96 by c. w Mayer, manager of the Standard oil company at Kansas City. The letter enclosed a check for ss and said that the company had decided to stop sending money for use of It's agents In obtaining information regarding the shipments of independent concerns for fear that know ledge of the practice might become pub lic
 Several other letters were read by the witness in which he was instructed to watch shipments in his territory and re- | port the name of every customer of the independent concerns and the amount of quality of oil received by him. He said that he had bribed clerks in the offices of the Rock Island, Santa Fe and Missouri l Pacific to give him lists of shipments to the customers of independent compa- 1 nies He told also of bribfng teamsters 1 in order to obtain information. .'Cyljnder oil is the most profitable sold. said the witness. "and the Standard oil 1 company dislikes to have any independent l sell any of this grade. Our instructions were that if we found competitor selling this oil in our territory. to cut the price so as to get the orders and then substi- ute an inferior grade of oil and guaran- tee it to be of superior quality
 Give Short Measure.
 Did you ever give short measures to your customers?" asked Commissioner Prouty.
 Well. we did not call it that" replied the witness 'I was frequently advised by agents of the company that my stock was not showing up it should. and was told that 1t was a simple matter to sell 200 to EOS gallons from a 200 gallon load of oil. The company explained this by saying that the oil expanded in the wagon"
 Attorney Miller for the Standard oil company broke in at this point to in- quire the scope of the investigation. He sa i'd that it was his understanding that the power of the commission was limited to an investigation of the relations of the company with common carriers, and that so far not the slightest evidence upon that point had been given He was opposed he said to the rakng over of muck and scan- dal by going back ten years in history. For your information I will assure you that the Standard oil company Is doing the very same things today said Mr. Wilhot.
 'I object to that statement" shouted Attorney Miller.
 Commissioner Clements in answer to the inquiry of Mir. Miller said that IL was desired to obtain all the information pos sible. and report 1t for the considera- ton of Congress.
 ]. ''Then as I understand 1t. said Mir. Miller the commission taxes the position that for the purpose of this inquiry It's power Is equal to that of the bureau of (continusd on Tenth Paas.)