Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-05-08
PRESIDENT SCORES
OIL Rebate EVILS

STRONG MESSAGE SENT TO CON-
GREss WITH REPORT OF COM
MISSIONER GARFIELD.
DECLARES POWER OF
MONOPOLY MUST END
Enlargement Of Authority of Com
nerce Body to Meet Needs of Sit
uation Urged = Profit of Trust
Through Secret Tariffs.
Washington, May 81 President
Roosevelt Friday transmitted to con-
gress the report of James r. Garfield,
commissioner of corporations, giving
the results of his investigation of the
subject of transportation and freight
rates in connection with the oil indus
try.
In his message the president ex-
presses the view that the report is OF
capital Importance because of the eff
fort now being made to secure such
enlargement of the powers of the in
terstate commerce commission as wili
confer upon the commission power in
some measure adequate to meet the
clearly demonstrated needs of the sit
uation The facts set forth in the re-
port, he declares, are for the most part
not disputed. That the Standard Oil
company has benefited enormously up
almost to the present moment by Sc
cret rates, many of which were clear
ly unlawful, the president says the re-
port clearly shows, the benefit thereby
secured amounting to at least three
quarters of million year.
Railroads Corrected Some Abuses.
i On this subject the president says:
This three-quarters of a million
represents the profit that the Standard
Oil company obtains at the expense of
the railroads; but, of course, the ulti-
mate result is that 1t obtains much
larger profit at the expense of the
public. A very striking result of the
investigation has been that shortly
rates by the commissioner of corpora
tons the major portion of them was
promptly corrected by the railroads. SO
that most of them have now been done
away with. This immediate correc-
lion, partial or complete, of the evil
of the secret rates is, of course, on the
one hand an acknowledgment that
severed in until exposed; and, on the
other hand a proof of the efficiency of
the work that has been done by the
bureau of corporations"
Urges Change in Immunity Law.
The statement is added that the de-
part1nent of justice will take up the
question of instituting prosecutions in
at least certain cases, and the hope is
expressed that congress will enact
into law the bill of Senator Knox to
correct the Interpretation of the i'm
munity provision rendered in Judge
Humphreys decision in the Chicago
beef cases.
Continuing, the president says
s'But in addition to these secret
rates the Standard Oil profits inn
mense1y by open rates, which are SO
arranged as TO give it an overwhelm-
ing advantage over its Independent
competitors. This 10 a characteristic
example OF the numerous evils which
are inevitable under a system in which
the big shipper and the railroad are
left free to crush out all individual
initiative and all power of independ-
ent action because of the absence Of
adequate ap6 thorough going govern
mental control. Exactly similar con-
ditions obtain in large part of the
west and southwest"
It is not possible, he says, to put
into figures the exact amount Nv
which The Standard profits through
the gross favoritism shown it by the
railroads in connection with the open
rates. 'The profit, of course, comes
not merely by the saving in the rate
itself as compared with it's compet-
dtors, but by the higher prices 1t is
able TO charge and by the complete
control of the market which 1t Sc
cures, thereby getting the profit on the
whole cpnsumptiep,"
The president calls attention to
fiat feature Of the report regarding
the manner in which the law is evaded
by treating as state commerce what in
reality is merely a part of interstate
commerce. He says 1t is clearly
shown that this device is employed
on the New York Central railroad as
we'll as on many other sailroads, in
such fashion as to amount to tkWart-
ing the purpose Of the law, although
tbs forms of the law may be complied
with
Sugar Trust Also Guilty.
IT ~ unfortunately not true, he says,
that the Standard Oil company is the
only corporation which has benefited
and is benefting in wholly improper
fashion by an elaborate series of rate
discftninations. The sugar trust, he
adds, according to the results of the
Investigation now in progress rarely
If ever pays the lawful rate for trans
porta1on. He declares that in the eff
fort to prevent the railroads from
uniting for improper purposes I'VE
have very unwisely prohibited them
from uniting for proper purposes: that
IS. for purposes Of protecting them
selves and the general public as
against The power of the great cor
porations."
He favors as ~ element OF compe-
tition the passage OF some such law