The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1906-05-09
OIL TRUST NOW
BEING INVESTIGATED BY THE
GOVERNMENT.
EECEIvEDRAILROaD REBATES
President Roosevelt Sends Commits
sioner Garfield's Report to Con-
gress and Makes Pertinent Com

mems.
Washington. - President Roosevelt
has transmitted to Congress the report
of James r. Garfield, commissioner of
corporations. giving the results of his
investigation of the subject of trans
portation and freight rates in connec-
ton with the oil industry.
In his message the President ex-
pressed the view that the report is OF
capital importance because of the eff
fort now being made to secure such en-
largement of the powers of the Inter
state Commerce Commission as will
confer upon the commission power in
some measure adequate to meet the
clearly demonstrated needs of the stu
alton.
The facts set forth in the report, he
declares, are for the most part not dis
puted. That the Standard Oil Com
pany has benefited enormously up al
most TO the present moment by secret
rates, many of which were clearly un-
lawful, the President says the report
clearly shows. the benefit thereby Sc
cured amounting to at least three-quar-
tiers of million dollars year. On this
subject he says:
This three-quarters of a million rep
Company obtained at the expense of
the railroads; but, of course, the ulti
mate result is that it now obtains a
much large profit al the expense of the
public.
"A very striking result of the inves-
tigatton has been that shortly after the
discovery of these secret rates by the
commissioner of corporations, the ma
jor portion of them were promptly cor
rected by the railroads. so that most of
them have now been done away with
This immediate correction, partially
or complete, of the evil of the secret
rates, is. of course. on the one hand an
acknowledgment that they were wrong
and yet were preserved and persevered
in until exposed; on the other hand,
the effect of the efficiency of the work
that has been done by the Bureau OF
Corporations"
The statement is added that the De-
partment of Justice will take up the
question of instituting prosecutions in
at least certain of the cases, and the
hope is expressed that Congress will
enact into law the bill of Senator Knox
10 correct the Interpretation of the i'm
munity provisions rendered in Judge
Humphreys decision. Continuing, the
President says:
But, IN addition to these secret
rates. the Standard Oil profits i'm
mensely by open rates. which are so ar
ranged as to give an overwhelming adj
vantage over its independent competi-
tors This is characteristic example
of the numerous evils which are in
evitable under system in which the
big shipper and the railroads are left
free TO crush out all individual initi-
alive and all power of Independent ac-
ton because of the absence of ade-
Guate and thorouSh-going govern.
mental control Exactly similar condi-
tions obtain in large part of the
West and Southwest"
1t is unfortunately not true. he says.
that the Standard Oil Company is the
only corporation which has benefited
and is benetiting in wholly improper
fashion by an elaborate series of rate
determinations.
The sugar trust, he adds. according
to the results of the investigation now
in progress, rarely. if ever, pays the
lawful rate for transportation. He de-
clares that in the effort to prevent the
railroads from uniting for improper
purposes. I'VE have very unwisely pro
hibited them from uniting for proper
purposes; that is, for purposes of pro
tecting themselves and the general
public against the power of the great
corporations