The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-26
TO KILL THE
 INDEPENDENTS George Lane Tells of His Duties. GAVE STANDARD OIL AWAY Drove the Competitors Out of a
 Dozen Places.
GAVE STANDARD OIL AWAY
Testified Before Interstate Commerce Commission That Unless small Dealers Were Ruined, His Job
 Paid Che Forfeit.

Cleveland. O., May 25----A total of nineteen witnesses were called by In- terstate Commerce Commissioners Prouty and Clements in the Standard oil Inquiry here today. Everybody connected with the investigation put m hard day and the two sessions gave suostantfal results
 The testimony of George Lane of Mansfield. O.. a former empioye of the standard oil Company, was regarded as particularly important. According 10 ms evidence. Lane was for about tourteen months in 1901 and 1902. eu1- pioyed by the Standard oil Company Tor the particular purpose of driving all or the independent oil peddiers in q dozen or more of the principal cities and towns of Northern Ohio out of buai- ness. He said he was employed by c. M Lyons of the Cleveland once of the standard Oil Company to go to certain oeslsnated places and use every means. Iair or foul to force the independents to quit.
 George B. Lane. an empIoye of the standard oil Company previous to 1901. testified at the Interstate Commerce. Commission Standard Oil hearing this afternoon that his business for several years for the Standard oil Company was 10 drive out the independent deaI- ers' 10 Kill them or. and he was told that if he could not do the job, souae-a' oody else would be sent to put tha standard competitors out of business.
 succeeded in driving all competi- tion in dozen different towns in Northern Ohio, and the only failt IT made was in Youngstown, where a by the name of Fahey stuck it out. withstanding that we spent as high SS gallon to give oil away.
 represented ourselves as independent put we got our supply from the Stano ard"
 Miss Elizabeth Protsman, a stenoRra- pher and bookkeeper in the Dayton of- ice of the Standard oil Company. tes- tihed that information concerning ship- ments by rivals was brought in by draymen and that she made careful cord of them
 John o'Brien. general superintendent of the Lima division of the Buckeva Pipe Line Company. a Standard con cern. was asked about the Standards telegraph system. The inquiries es- abolished that the Standard has a tele- graph system of its own extending to nearly every part of the country The company has its own wires leased or otherwise, operators. offices regulations and blanks and sometimes sends nies- sages for persons not connected with the company.
 TeSt1mony or Duffy.
 Among the other witnesses were O. ID. Byles secretary and treasurer of the Independent Refinig Company. oil City, Pa. and c. B. Duffy purchasing agent Of the Hooking Valley Railroad. The last named when asked if he had not said recently that his road would lose from $150.000 to $20o.000 a year in freightage if he bought lubrlcating oils from any other company than the Stan- dard or Galena. replied that he might have made such a remark. but he had no positive recollection of 1t. He said he had no instructions from his supA- riors to buy oils from the Standard or Galena companies
 D. O. Byles testified as to increases in freight rates on various roads dur ing the last twelve or fifteen years. In the Yakin, Ind. territory. he said the Standards agents continually circulat- ed reports that the Independent oil Refining Company was in reality con- trolled by the Standard. The railroads he declared, had begun increasing tho rates to New England in the early eighties and had been gradually cutting out the through rates to nearly all points and substituting an arbitrary rate which was almost prohibitive- These rates which were levied prln- cipally by the Lake Shore and Pennsyl- vania roads. had practically driven his company out of the New England field. In trying 10 reach. Southern territory, as far as New Orleans, a similar difii- cuitv was met All kinds of difficu1ties, the witness said, were being continual lv thrown In their way by the raii- roads particularly the Pennsylvania