The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-06-29
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eraI Topics from
the Capital.
June 90, 1906.


I Company on the strength of the
report that has been made by
/ Commissioner of CorpOr i n s
+ Garfield on the determinations
practiced in the oil business, par
ticularly in the transportation of
| the oil by the railroads. 1t has
been announced that the proSecu
ton will be instituted aud special
attorneys for the prosecution have
been retained. Then the question
Of how the STANDARD is going to
meet the situation. This will not
be the first time the giant com
pany has been in the courts, and
it has always had money enough
| to huy the hest brains on the
market and thus eifectually de-
feat any attempt on the part of
the government to curb it or exact
even approximate Justice from it.
The chances are that the prose
cution will be about as great Il
farce as any other Of TIE proSecu-
tiOus Of the Standard that have
been instituted. bar it will be
rather interesting to see what sort
of a farce it will he.
There are rumorS of prosecution
fl Wing very thick just now. The
Interstate Commerce Commission
promises to have something hot
served up after they get their teS-
tim0uy arranged for the first
volume of their report on the coal
and oil carry ing railroads. 1t is
said that they are going cunning
for a railroad president. 1t was
somewhat significant that none of
he railroad p esldentS were sub
peOnaed to appear before the com
mission during its recent SittingS.
There was toward the end of the
! hearings a general invitation is.
sued for any railroad presidents
who wished to come forward and
tell all they knew. 1t appeared
that none of hem wished. for none
ofthem came forward. There was
no legal command to appear Serv-
ed on them. and thus if there
should he any proceedings inSti-
tuted and ii more miraculous still
there ShO I'D be a conviction. they
| could not escape via the "iIuunltE
bath" route.
The hearings of the Interstate
Commerce Commission are now
concluded for the summer Il Il
while there is not much ground
still to be covered, the first sec
ton of their report will probably
not be ready till fall. The last
witness they had on the stand
this week was an interesting old
gentleman named Gardner, one OF
the vice presidents Of four coal COM
panies owned Ivy the Erie Rail-
road. He said that the Erie own
ed the four companies as they drew
from them about half of the ;
/ 600, 900 tons of coal that they
consumed each year. And then
he went on to tell the Commission
a few things from the railroad
point of views about owning coal
mines. He said he had been an
expert in the coal business since
the days Of the old Hay den Sur
vey and that he had worked in
the same capacity for the Atchi-
son Topeaka and Santa Fe, the
Rio Grande Western and some
other roads that he was now work
ing for the Erie. He was a CON
sulting coal expert. He said that
the road depended primarily on
its fuel supply being regular, Ger
tain and cheap. This he said
could be accomplished only by the
railroads owning their own mines
or the bulk of them, and that so
far as he was concerned he had
advised the Erie to buy more coal
lands as soon as they could get
them at reasonable price. And
he did not see what was to pre-
vent their doing it so long as they
used the coal for their own con-
sumption. This was a rather warm
parting shot from the commission,
and they will now have the sum
mer to think over this phase of
the situation and adjust their re
port accordingly.
There is life and death strug-
gle going on in the House between
the forces of the Pure Food Bill
and the LOBBY of the adulterated
food manufacturers. This is a
pretty fight. 1t is interesting to
watch and the wonder is that any
honest vendor of food feels that he
can afford to fight the measure
! that is being put forward. The
bill does not prescribe what the
people shall eat or what they shall
buy. 1t merely insists that when
the "tinest imported olive oil'' is
really cottonseed, the label seould
say so. Similarly it provides
that when the can of vegetables
you get at the corner grocery or
at the department store weighs
I