The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-17
ST TANDARD O|L ISSUES CIRCULAR Makes Statement to ShafehO|d- CTS in RepIs to Message SIGNED BY SECRETARY PRATT It Positively Denies Charge That the Company Is Benefited By Secret
 Rates for Transportation
 of Products.
SIGNED BY SECRETARY PRATT

| New York, May 16.-The Standard oil
 company today issued to its shareholders
 a statement in reply to the special mes
 sage recently sent to Congress by Presi-
 dent Roosevelt, and the report on the
 country's oil industry by Commissioner
 Garfield of the bureau of corporations,
 which accompanied it. The statement is signed by c. M. Pratt, secretary, and was issued by order of the board of directors. l It denies positively the charge that the
 Standard oil company benefited by secret
 rates for the transportation of it's pro- duets.
 The statement in part says:
 "On May the President of the United | States submitted a special message to ! Congress transmitting report to him by Commissioner Garfield of the bureau of corporations in which the commissioner
 charges that this company has habitually
 received from the railroads, and is now receiving, secret rates and other unjust
 and Illegal determinations.
 l Preliminary disclaimers were at once
 made to Commissioner Garfleld's allega- l tions, but we feel that you may naturally
 anticipate more elaborate and technical
 reply which we submit hereunder.
 'The large sums of money which MT.
 Garfield sets down as one years savings
 to the Standard through the operation of
 certain freight rates-sums which the | President aggregates as $50. 000-could
 only have been arrived at by theorizing.
 "If the claim of Commissioner Garfield
 was true that the Standard is favored by open rates 1t would involve not only col
 fusion between the railroads and the I Standard oil company, but collision by | the railroads with each other. It would | also involve the consent of a railroad not
 reaching Whiting, Ind. for example, to | the establishment of rates out of that | point, which would be injurious to busi-
 ness out of another point at which the
 consenting railroad was receiving traffic.
 To bring about such an arrangement
 would be impossible It may be said gen.
 erally that there is competing refinery
 in almost every section of the United
 States where the Standard has refinery
 except at Whiting, Ind.
 "No rates can be made applicable to the
 Standard which will not be equally ap-
 plicable to the Standards competitors.
 Explanation Given.
 "After an investigation of shipments
 during a period of about fifteen years,
 over more than 200,0N0 miles of railway, l the commissioner Is not able to show
 that the Standard oil company received | single rebate on its interstate ship
 ments. He has only been able to call
 attention to a few instances in which
 the rate situation in his opinion required l explanation This explanation was Tree
 ly given. and we believe would be satis-
 factory to any man familiar with trans
 portation problems.
 | "If the commissioner had any doubts as
 to the regularity of these rates, he might have brought them to the attention of | the interstate commerce commission when | the question at issue could have been | heard and determined. In the absence
 of such determination it Is surely not
 within the limits of fairness for the ! bureau of corporations to cast asper-
 sions upon a great corporation.
 "The company owns and controls only | a very moderate percentage of the crude
 production of the United States and with | at least 125 rival rehneres in existence l 1t is palpabe absurdty to call 1t a mon | opoly For the last quarter of a century
 more than sixty per cent of it's ouput
 has been shipped to foreign countries 1 If the company maintains gratifying percentage of the worlds commerce, 1t is | because it keeps its agreements, and de- | flyers products of reliable quality at req l sonabe prices Whatever measure of | prosperity it has enjoyed is not trace l able to illegal or reprehensible methods | but to its economic and elaborate indus | trial organization covering as 1t does | every detail of transportation, manu- l facture and administration"
 | Taking up the report of Commissioner | Garfield under various heads:
 Shipments Into the South. MT. Garfield charges that the Standard | oil company has maintained absolute | control of the section of country south
 of the Ohio river and east of the Mis- | sissippi through secret rates, and open | determinations from Whiting, Ind. "The charge covers many rate points
 First comes that as to the oil entering ] the south through what is termed the | Grand Junction, Tenn. combination. For | years and by way of both the Illinois Gen. | tral and the Chicago and Eastern llli-
 nois railroads running south from Chi
 cago. the rate on refined oil from Whit | ing. Ind. to Grand Junction. Tenn, was | 13 cents per 100 pounds, and this rate was
  | the interstate commerce commission. The | latter fact MT. Garfield has omitted to | state in his report. The Southern rail- | way had a tariff also published and filed | with the interstate commerce commission naming rates from Evansville. Ind. via l Grand Junction. Tenn, to a great many l points through the south, These rates | have been in force since 1898. and collec- | tions have always been made from the | Standard oil company at the net figures; | no. rebates or secret settlements being | involved.
 "'It was specifically shown to the com | missioner that the combination of rates | into the south via Grand Junction was | not of great importance to the Standard 1 oil company. because during all the time the rates to and from Grand Junction were in force the. Standard Oil company l shipped fully as much oil from Whiting. | Ind. via Evansville and other routes at
 the rates prevailing to and beyond the l '0hiois river, The use of the Grand June
 tionsroute was simply an incident in the | distribution Of a part of a very large l tonnage into the south, Hundreds of cars I were shipped yehrly into that section
 froin Ohio Ssand Pennsylvania shipping points by the Standard, and it's competi- | torsl shipments were also made from Buffalo, and Rochester, N. Y. from Phil
 adelphia, Baltimore, Savannah. Whining ton N. C.. and New Orleans.
 | 50 far as the rates from Whiting to 1 Evansville are concerned. the fact is that | these rates were openly quoted by the | railroads. and were in force great many years. The Standard had nothing to do with railroads methods of manifesting. It simply paid the rates quoted to Ii with