Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-05-05
Call Presidents S Message to Con-
gTeSS, Attacking Standard
Oil Company, Unjust.
ANSWER WITH SARCASM.
in Transmitting the GAR
field Report to Congress, Says
Standard Oil Company Has Profit
ed Largely Through Secret and
Unlawful Rebates-Trusts Have
the Railroads at Their Mercy.

NEW YORK, May 5.-In reply to
President Roosevelts message and the
report of Commissioner Garfield,
Messrs. Ii. II. Rogers and John ID.
Archbold of the Standard Oil company
said that their examination of the mes
sage and report had necessarily been a
hurried one and that they should at a
later date make full answer to their
shareholders. Meanwhile they have
made public the following statement:
I'm the presidents effort to secure
the passage of a bill enlarging the
powers of the interstate commerce
commission and just and equitable
railway rates we have precisely the
same interest that any good citizen
has, no more and no less. Regarding
his criticisms upon the management of
the railways or his structures upon any
acts of the interstate commerce COM
mission, we have neither responsibility
nor concern.
"When, however, he or Commission
er Garfield attacks the Standard Oil
company and uses its methods of doing
business as an object lesson for the
purpose of promoting his views we
protest.
ut may be frankly stated at the out
set that the Standard Oil company has
at all times within the limits of fair
ness and with due regard for the law
sought to secure the most advanta-
geous freight rates and routes possible.
There will be no denial of this fact on
our part. The question is whether we
have at any point violated the law or
the proprieties.
Zone does not care to handy words
with the president of the United States.
1t is not easy to differentiate between
Mr.. Roosevelt the president and Mr..
Roosevelt the individual. He has given
us of his advice most generously upon
every subject, from the size of our
families to the mistakes of the federal
judges, and some error is inevitable
now and then to, the most conservative
man under such circumstances.
"We say fatty that any assertion
that the Standard Oil company has
been or is now knowingly engaged in
practices which are unlawful is alike
untruthful and unjust.
"The commissioner is peculiarly un-
| fortunate on the subject of rebates.
The public may well take his word
that he made an exhaustive examina-
ton, and yet withal he says that with
one or two exceptions the investiga-
tions of the bureau have as yet dis
covered no rebates in the technical
sense on interstate business
1T is asserted over and over again
in the report that the Standard Oil
company profited by secret and 'un-
! lawful freight rates. Yet in the same
connection it is admitted in the report
that all of these rates are covered by
tariffs filed with the interstate com
merce commission precisely as the law
provides and therefore cannot be-eithel
secret or unlawful
Commissioners Garfield says the
Standard Oil company has habitually
received from the railroads and is now
receiving secret rates and other unjust
| ana illegal observation-disclosures. II 10 ldIu
ly fair or manly for him to add the
sentence, of course there may be 9th
er secret rates which the bureau has
not discovered
"In dealing with the discrimination
which are alleged to be violations OF
the Interstate commerca law the plair
answer is that if Mr.. Garfield's state
ment is correct it was the duty of the
interstate commerce commission tt
have taken action and brought no
alone the Standard Oil company. bu
the railway companies involved, t.
book, and this they have never done
'eThe grief which the president ex
presses in his message over the inabili
} ty of the railroads to combine and pro
!, tect themselves from the shippers will
probably arouse amusement.
: "The president says respecting thi
investigation that the facts are not-il
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