The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-05-18
DUTY OF ATTORNEY
GENERAL IS CLEAR
da TsrbeIl Says Moody Must
Prosecute Standard
Oil.
Is CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY
70 Regulate the Transportation Prob
lem 10 to Draw the Fanss of the
Oil Trust and Permit of
Competition.

Philadelphia, May T.--Ida Tarbell,
whose disclosures concerning the
Standard Oil company have been con-
sdrmed in the recent report of Comm1s.
tsiOner Garfield and the message OF
President Roosevelt, declares that the
transportation problem would pave the
way for competition with the
and would solve many of the problems
confronting the public. Miss Tarbell in
;sists that the Standard Oil company is
samcnable to prosecution under the pro-
visions To The Sherman antitrust law,
for engaging in a criminal conspiracy
In restraint of trade.
In the course of an interview she
gave expression to her views as fol-
lows:
In my history of the Standard I
have frequently been accused of over
stating the facts with a view 10 making
"a good story but since this govern
mental report became public l have
been proved to be a very conservative
and fair sort of person.
A Criminal Conspiracy.
1.-THE additional facts which MI. Car
Held dug UP have made me more than
ever convinced that the Standard Oil
company is conducting a criminal con-
,spiracy in restraint of trade, n that
II. is the evident duty of the attorney
general Of the United States to prose-
cute the corporation, not only for en-
tertng int arrangements with the rail-
roads for illegal rebates, but for viola
ition OF the Sherman antitrust law.
ut Is my belief that this question is
NOV the greatest problem before the
American people. It should be made
a political issue. If l were asked to
define the paramount political needs
OF our country today I should state
them in this order:
First. solving of The transportation
problem, SO that every ma would be
treated alike on the railroads, just as
men are treated alike in h streets. I
neal by this an equitable arrangement
in passenger transportation, as we'll as
In freight transportation.
Second, reform of the tariff so that
no body of men can make themselves
rich at the expense of the people,.
Third. control of all municipal fran
chises by the cities themselves, so that
h rights conveyed by those fran
chises may be exercised by the people,
and not by a small coterie of capital
lists who obtain special privileges by
bribery and trickery.
"A solution Of the first problem
would draw the fangs from the Stand
ard Oil company. Given equal rams
lportation facilities and a fair market,
do away with all this %cut-throat mar
ket business, and Independent inter-
ests can grow up.
o course, 1t would be slow work in
the oil fields, for the Standard, through
Its rebates and drawbacks, it's bribery
n it's lobbying, has attained a tre-
mendous hold, which only years Of
honest competition could break.
But 1t can be broken. Witness what
the Pure Oil company has done. That
company, by the a was an emana-
ton from the brain of my friend, Mr..
Emery. His was the first thought that
made the Pure Oil company's enter
prise possible.
ITO get back to Commissions Gar
fields report again, some of the in
stances of rebating mentioned by him
were not new to me, and We're given
In my history. For instance, I had
called attention to the refusal of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford
and other New England roads to pro-
rate for independent companies, and /
also mentioned the discrimination
against independent points in favor of
points fed by the Standard at Whiting,
Ind. The Whiting matter was brought
out first by the Interstate Commerce
commission five or six years ago.
MIR. Garfield has gone further han
I could go. Where I had to ask for
information, he demanded it. 1 had a
magazine behind me, and he had the
government. All the agents that HI
needed were at his disposal, and when
he wanted to look into any particular
phase of h question r was only nee
essary for him to go to headquarters
and say, Show me-
Then. too, Mr.. Garfield wrote a re-
port, and I wrote history. l was be-
ginning at the beginning and telling
the facts; For me 1t was a case to be
proved and in reality. 1t was the
Standard Oil company which wrote
my history, not /. Their own acts, laid
down in court records, attested by le-
gal documents and sworn evidence and
merely transcribed and arranged by
me. proved the Standard dishonest and
unfair"
IN. uAppiAnrc