Gilpin observer., 1906-05-10
OIL TRUST NOW
BEING INVESTIGATED BY THE
vERNMENT.
RECEIVED RAILROAD REBATES

President Roosevelt Sends Commits
sioner GarfieId's Report to Con-
gress and Makes Pertinent Com.
ments.
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 ef-
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-
ters OF million dollars a year. On this
subject he says:
This three-quarters of million rep
resents the profit that the Standard Oil
Company obtained at the expense of
the railroads; but, of course, the ulti-
mate result is that it now obtains a
much large profit at the expense of the
public.
"a very striking result of the inves-
tigation 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
to 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 ad-
vantage over it's independent competi-
tors. This is a 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-
| ative and all power of Independent ac-
ton because of the absence Of ade-
quate and thorough-going govern
| mental control. Exactly similar cOndi-
tions obtain in a 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 benefiting 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"