Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-05-29
TRUST foes were
BLOCKED BY ROADS
WITNESS AT OIL PROBE TELLS
HOW PRODUCTS OF Compel
IToRs WERE DELAYED.
RAILWAY AGENTS ALSO
EMPLOYED BY STANDARD
Coal Tariff Hearing at Philadelphia
Continued Former Burlington
Official, on Trial for Rebate Con-
spiracy at Kansas City, Discharged

Cleveland. O., May 26.-Frank B.
Fretter. head of the National Refining
company and the National Pipe Line
company, was on the stand at the sec
ond days session of the interstate
commerce commissions oil probe Fri
day.
His story told of the winning fight
these companies, backed by the public,
had fought against the Standard Oil
company and its pirate subsidiaries
in Ohio and of the many knives-in-the-
back wrongs these companies had suf-
fered at the hands of the Standards
agents and the railroads.
I'm making shipments from Mem
phis, Tenn, to Arkansas" testified
Fretter. Our shipments were time
after time delayed month or three
month";
Railway Man Admits Alliance.
II learned that the agents of the
Iron Mountain railroad were also
agents of the Standard. / went to the
general manager of the road to pro.
test.
HE told me he had already spoken
to the officers of the Standards sub
sidiary companies and asked them not
to employ his agents. He told me he
hoped the practice would be discontin-
ned.
Delays continued and we lost many
customers because of the delays. Mer-
chants wrote they could get groceries
through on time, but not my oil.
AT our stations in Illinois the rail-
roads will ship less than car orders
of oil only on certain days.
"At Springfield, ILL.,, for instance,
the Baltimore & Ohio railroad will
ship only ON Mondays and Thursdays.
Orders coming too late for those days
must be delayed an i the Standard gets
our customers with its tank wagons.
I'VE have repeatedly applied for bet.
ter opportunities for shipment with
out success. If we did not make a
better grade of oil than the Standard
we would be forced out of business"
How Standard Ruined Rivals.
William Ebbinger, a dry goods mer-
chant of Marietta, o., testified that
for several years previous to 1895 he
was interested in what was known as
the Webster Refinery in the Marietta
field. The refinery went into the
hands of receiver ultimately, he said,
because Of the methods of the Stand
ard. The plan pursued by the Stand
ard, he declared, to ruin the Webster
rof1norv woo cto ~
posed independent company whose
agents went among the Webster's GUS
toners and offered them better rates
on goods handled by the Webster peo-
pie. The refinery, he said, lasted only
about three years because Of these
tactics.
T. B. Westgate, of Titusville, Pa,
was recalled for the purpose of giving
testimony concerning the alleged un-
derbilling Of tank cars by the Stand
ard company and concerning which
he gave some testimony Thursday.
Mr.. Westgate said that he now had
positive evidence of underbilling
which he lacked when he testified
Thursday. He then produced several
ptiS VI 1duAu6 VI SAlpmeuIS mdue IN
1901 by the Vacuum Oil company
from Clean, N. Y, to Mr.. Mason, in
Rochester, N. Y, and read figures
which he said established the fact
that the shipments were underbilled,
There was much technical discussion
concerning the documents and the
commissioners indicated that they
were not clear on the subject and
they took possession of the papers for
the purpose of figuring them out.