The Mena weekly star., 1906-05-10
GARFIELD REPORT SENI IN
President Transmits to Congress Findings of Commissioner Re-
 garding Oil Industry.
STANDARD pRoFITED BY SECRET RATES
Department of Justice Mas
 Criminal Proceedings in certaih o"' Sugar Trust Also Guilty or heoaN President Favors Government Soo of Indian Coal and Oil Lands.


 Washington. May 5.-President Roosevelt Friday transmitted to con gress the report of James H- Gar neld commissioner of corporations, giving the results of his investigation of the subject of transportation anu freight rates in connection With tue oil industry.
 Tn his message the president ex- presses the view that the report IS of capital importance because o1 the el- fort now being made to secure such enlargement of the powers or the in- terstate commerce commission as Will confer upon the commission power Ill some measure adequate to meet the clearly demonstrated needs or the situation. That the Standard Oll company has benefited enormously I'D almost to the present moment Dy secret rates, many of which were clearly unlawful, the president says the report clearly shows, the benefit thereby secured amounting to at least s750 900 a year. On this subject he says:
 "This s750,0 0,000 represents the profit that the Stnadard Oil company obtains at the expense of the railroads; but of course the ultimate result is that it obtains a much larger profit at the expense of the public.
 A very striking result of the inyesti- gation has been that shortly after the discovery of these secret rates by the commissioner of corporations, the ma jor portion of them were promptly corrected by the railroads, so that most of them have now been done away with"
 The statement is added that the department of justice will take up the question of instituting prosecu- tions in at least certain of the cases. Continuing, the president says:
 But in addition to these secret rates the Standard oil profits inn mensely by open rates which are so arranged as to give it an overwhelm- Ing advantage over it's independent competitors.
 It is unfortunately not true he says, that the Standard Oil company is the only corporation which has benefited and is benefitting in wholly improper fashion by an elaborate series of rate discriminations. The Sugar Trust, he adds, according to the re- suits of the investigation now in pro- gross. rarely, if ever pays the lawful rate for transportation
 He fayors, as an element of com petition the passage of some such law as that which has already passed the house putting alcohol used in the arts on the free list and of keeping the dian tribes or on the public domain in the government, the lands to he leased only on such terms and for such periods as will enable the govern ment to entirely control them.
 Commissioner Garfield finds that the output of refined oil amounts to about 2e,000000 barrels annually, of which the Standard Oil company con- trolls about 23.000,OOO and approxim- atsly the same proportion of the other finished products of petroleum Continuing, the report says:
 '''fhe Standard claims thai the loca- :lon of it's refineries and the use oi pipe lines are natural advantages tc which 1t is justly entitled. While ir measure that is true, it must not Ax werp in part obtained by means of un fair competitive methods after year. Of fierce industrial strife,
 The development of the pipe lin, system by the Standard oil company vas ;he result of special agreement' with railroad companies. Futhsr- more, those so-oalled natural adyant- ages have been and are being great ly increased by discriminations ir | freight rates which give the Standard monopolistic control in the greater portion of the country.
 1 An immediate result of this delim- station of the competitive area is shown by the exorbitant profits ob- tained in the non-competitive fields
 In 1894, the secret rates received from the railroads saved to the Stand ard Oil company s750. 900. representing the difference between the open rate: | and the rates actually paid These discriminations." he says, have beel so long continued, so secret, So :n geniously applied to new condition. of trade, and so large in amount a: to make it certain that they were due to concerted action by the Stand ard and the railroads"
 Mir Garfield then refers to sever instances of important dlscrimina tions in favor of the Stanrd Oil com pany in various parts of the countr, and says that most of the secret rate and some of the open discrimination l discovered by the bureau wer abolished by the railroads shortly af ter such discovery. Mir Garfield say | that the changes affected have put tn XSF Kwz8g