The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-05-05
STANDARD OILS
SIDE OF THE CASE
Continued from PAGE I.

vantages following it were obtained by
means of unfair competitive methods,
but beyond this mere assertion does
not go into a history or explanation of
these alleged unfair methods at all. He
says the development of the pipe line
system by the Standard Oil company
was the result of special agreement
with the railroad companies What he
can mean is past our comprehension.
AS a matter of fact the development of
the pipe line system by the Standard
Oil company was in the face of violent
hostilities on the part of the railroads
which naturally were opposed to the in
PRODUCTION of such means Of Transport
tatiOn. At enormous cost, and in the
face of steadfast railway opposition,
at an early date the Standard Oil com
pany adopted the pipe line methods for
handling crude petroleum. The first line
was extended from the western Penn
sylvania oil fields to Bergen Point on
the Atlantic coast. This line diverted
an enormous amount of freight from
the railway companies. which fact they
did not view with cOmplacency.
Alleged FaVoritism.
Passing from this point, Commits
siOner Garfield takes up the question
of favoritism which he alleges has been
shown by various railroad corpora
lions to the Standard Oil company.
The first specific case Of alleged dis
elimination to which he directs at
tention is in the New England terri
! tory. 1t is charged that we enjoy a
monopoly in certain parts of that sec
ton because some of the railroads there
refuse to pro rate. The man who
could be deceived by such a statement
must be pretty dense. First, if the New
England roads ought to pro rate, but
refuse to do so, it must occur to some
one somewhere that perhaps the New
England roads and not the Standard
nv ira Ia mo 1T n
very casual inquiry would show that
the New England roads are simply do
ing what they are forced to do by nat
ural conditions and that Mr.. Garfield's
attacks, to be effective, should be di-
rected at Long Island sound as a means
of freight communication. Obviously
we have an advantage by the use Of
our own pipe lines from the western
oil fields to the coast and to the use of
water transportation to New England
over any one who uses all rail- trans
pOrtation from western points But
this advantage is one which it is not
possible to correct by any rate legisla-
ton unless it is proposed to bankrupt
the railroads in order to meet water
competition. Yet we are not alone in
this method of transportation. Some of
our competitors do the same thing and
deliver oil at the points in New Eng
land that we do by the same process.
Standard Oil Not to Blame.
Mr.. Garfield claims that the refusal
to pro rate on the part of the New Eng
land railroads has given the Standard
on company practical control of New
England territory and enabled it to main
tain eXorbitant prices for kerosene Yet
while it is admitted that the New Haven
road has recently begun to pro rate this
alleged condition of control has not
changed in any way, nor have the prices
OF Kerosene been affected. The New Eng
land roads believe they can make more
money by refusal to pro rate, and if in
doing so they are violating the proprie-
ties, clearly they, and not the Standard
Oh company, should be made the object
of attack.
The commissioner Is peculiarly unfor-
Inmates in the subject Of rebates The
pubic may well take his word that he
made an exhaustive examination. and vet
Wlthal ne says that with one or two ex-
cepuOnS the Investigations of the bureau
have as yet discovered no rebates in the
technical sense on interstate business
These exceptions were on business done
wholly within Co1yfo.-.s.
over which, of course, neither Mr.. Gar
held s bureau nor the interstate COM
merce commission have any jurisdiction
But in those cases the alleged rebates
were fully explained to Mr.. Garfield and
involved no turptude whatever. 1t was a
new business on the Pacific coast, and
before 1t had been systematized there
were OVerCharges, not to the Standard Oil
company alone, but to every one engaged
in the enterprise which OVercharges were
subsequently adjusted.
An Unfair Statement.
He says the Standard Oil company has
habitually received from the railroads and
is now receiving secret rebates and 9th
er unjust and illegal determinations. 1t
IS hardly fair or manly for him to add
the sentence, of course there NAV be
other secret rates which the bureau has
not discovered
In dealing with the determinations
which are alleged to be violations of the
interstate commerce law, the plain an
swer is that if Mr. Garfieid's Statement
int
state commerce commission to have taken
action and brought not alone the Stand
ard Oil company, but the railroad com
panieS involved, to book, and this they
have never done. Violations of the law
in this respect do not fail within the iur-
isdlcuon OF the bureau of corporations
and any statement on the part of Mr.
Garfield respecting this subject is gratui-
tOus and valueless.
No Control Over State Rates.
Again, he has no control whatever
over state rates. which by the law are
put under the jurisdiction of the state
authorities. and over which the bureau
Of commerce nor the interstate commerce.
commission have any control. But all of
this aside, there have been no secret rates
or unlawful determinations in the inter-
est of the Standard Oil comoany Take
the case of the rate from Whiting to
East St Louis, upon which he laws so
much stress While discussing it at great
length as an important find he quail
flies and explains it all by the statement
that Whiting was n suburb of Chicago,
within the switching district of that
city, and that all freight rates from
Whiting had for many years been the
same those from Chicago
This practice had obtained for twenty
years and had applied to all kinds of mer-
chandise, and TO say that a rate had been
used thus freely and openly for that
period by every one was a secret rate is
manifestly unfair. Moreover. our oil re-
| finery is the only one at Whiting or with
in 100 miles Of it, that the so-caIIed
discrimination clearly could not have
worked any harm to any connection shin
ping oil from Whiting or its vicinity
Advantage of Standard Company.
Mr.. Garfield's claim that by the use
of low interstate rates the Standard Oil