The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-05-05
FAvORS SHOWN
STANDARD OIL
Railroads Forced to Assist the
Giant Corporation to Crush
Out Competition.
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
PRESIDENT STARTS ON AN
OTHER TRUST HUNT.

Washington, May 4-President
Roosevelt today transmitted to con-
gress the report of James H. Gar
field commissioner o corporations,
giving the results of his investigation
Of the subject of transportation and
freight rates in connection with the oil
industry.
In his message the president ex-
pressed the view that the report is Of
capital Importance because of the eff
fort now being made to secure such en-
largement of the powers of the inter
state commerce commission a will con-
fer upon the commission power in some
measure adequate to meet the clearly
demonstrated needs Of the situation.
The facts set forth I'm 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 IN
lawful the president says the report
clearly shows, the benefit thereby Sc
cured amounting to at least three-quar-
tiers Of a million year. On this sub
jcct he says:
Proof Was Secured.
This three-quarters of a million rep
reSentS the profit that the Standard Oil
ccmpay obtains at the expense of
the railroads; but. of course, the ulti-
mate result is that it obtains a much
larger profit at the expense of the pub
lie A very striking result of the in
VestigatiOn has been that shortly af-
Ter the discovery of these secret rates
by the commissioner of corporations
the major portion of them were
promptly corrected by the railroads
SO that most of them have now been
done away with. This immediate cor
rection. partial or complete, of the evil
of the secret rates, is. of course on the
one hand an acknowledgment that thew
were wrong, and yet were persevered in
until exposed; and on the other hand
a proof 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 ca -ns and the
hope is expressed that congress will
enact into law the bill of Senator Knox
10 correct the Interpretation of the i'm
munity provision rendered in Judge
Humphreys decision. Continuing the
president says:
Competition Crushed Out
But in addition to these secret rates
the Standard Oil profits immensely by
open rates, which are so arranged as
10 give 1t an overwhelming advantage
over its Independent competitors This
characteristic example of the numerous
evils which are inevitable under d sys-
tenn in which the big shipper and the
railroad are left to crush out all in
diVidual initiative and all power of in
dependent action because of the alb
sence of adequate and thOrOugh-going
governmental control Exactly similar
conditions obtain in large part of the
west and southwest"
it is not possible, he says. to out
into figures the exact amount by which
the Standard profits through the gross
favOritism shown it by the railroads
I'm connection with the open rates.
The profit of course comes not mere
" by the saving in the rate itself as
compared with it's competitors. but by
the higher prices it is able to charge
and by the complete control of the mar
kct which it secures, thereby getting
the profit on the whole consumption"
How the Law Is Evaded.
The president calls attention to that
feature of the report regarding the
manner III which the law is evaded bv
treating as state commerce what in
reality is merely a part of interstate
commerce. He says il IS clearly shown
that this device is employed on the
New York Central railroad as well as
on many other railroads. in such fash