Evening star., 1907-08-03
DEFENDS THE TRUST
STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT OF
THE INDIANA COMPANY.

NEW YORK, August 3-President James
| A. Moffatt of the Standard Oil Company of
| Indiana made the following statement to-
day in reference TO the judgment by Judge
Lands pronounced in Chicago:
'The court having pronounced its judg
ment in the case of the United States VS..
| the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, there
| can now be no improperly in stating our
position to the American people
'"The facts in this case are simple and
easily understood. The Standard Oil Com,
pany of Indiana was convicted of receiving
| what the government claimed was a con-
cession from the Chicago and Alton in the
| shipment Of oil from its refinery at Whiting.
| Ind, to East st. Louis. Ill. The contention
of the state that the lawful rate
was 1S cents per one hundred pounds be-
tween these two points. The defendant
| claims, first, that the lawful rate was 8
cents, and, secondly. If cents was not the
| lawful rate 1t was the rate issued to the
Standard by the Alton as the lawful rate.
and the Standard was justified in believing
from its own investigation and from the
information received from the railroad COM
| pany that centS\wa the lawful rate.
"he eighteen-ceht rate was class and
not commodity rate, and the chairman
| OF the Chicago and St. Louis Traffic Asso-
ctation, the association issuing the eighteen
cent class rate, under oath testified that It
was never applied, and was never intended
to apply to oil.
Thousands Of tons Of freight have BEEN
shipped from these points under the same
circumstances the Standard shipments,
| and If the Standard is guilty in this case so
is practically every other shipper in this
great manufacturing territory Is there a
purpose in selecting the Standard as the
victim?
- Used Commodity Rates.
"The Standard Oil Company shipped about
one-third of all the oil that went from
yltx
ern Illinois. the other two-thirds going
over the Alton and the Burlington. On
the trial of the case the defendant offered
to show by witnesses who were the
| stand that not only during the period Of
time covered by the Indictment, but con-
tinuously from 1895, the Eastern Illinois
had q lawful published and filed rate be-
| tween Whiting and East st. Louis on oil Of
| 6 cents per 100 pounds, and tnat the Stand
| ard OIL Company shipped at such rate over
the Eastern Illinois more than 2OOO cars Of
| oil each year during said period. To this
| offer the government, through its attor-
neys, strenIously objected, and the court
| sustained such objection.
| 1.-The defendant contended, and stfil does
| contend. that this proof would have
| clusi lively shown that the Standard Oil
Company. had no possible motive in ship
| the law, when 1t might just readily and
| conveniently have shipped all of its oil over
| the Eastern Illinois and not have violated
| any law.
'The defendant also offered to prove that
I packing house products during the same
| period Of time. were carried between these
same points under commodity rate for
| 10 cents: malt, cents: brick. cents: corn
| meal, cents; rosin, 61a cents; starch,
| cents: peas, beans and popcorn, cents;
| linseed oil In tank cars, cents; glycerin,
] 6 cents.
'"The court again sustained the objections
| Of government counsel. and thus again pro-
! hibited us from showing the jury how abb
| surd was the governments claim that the
| rate. for example. on linseed OIL was y
| cents. while on petroleum oil 1t was IS
| cents.
Thinks Law Unjust.
Under such circumstances. and in view
| Of the fact that petroleum had been openly
carried over the three roads from Whiting
to East st. Louis for from ten to fourteen
| years for cents. what a draft 1t is on HUI
man credulity for the prosecution to assert
| that IS cents was the only possible lawful
| rate.
The uncontradicted evidence also showed
the Standard Oil Company was advised by
the rate clerk of the Chicago and Alton that
| this six-cent rate was filed with the inter-
| state commerce commissioner.
| The court, however, instructed the jury
| that the shipper must know not only what
| the rate was, but also that such rate was
| actually filed with the interstate commerce
| commission-that Is to say, the view of the
| court was that a shipper must know abso-
| lutely what was the legal. rate, at the risk
| of suffering enormous penalties in the event
| either that he was misinformed by the rail-
road company or In the event that he did
not exercise as much diligence as in the
| judgment OF the court he should have ex-
| ercised in ascertaining what the rate really
was.
| IF this is the law, every shipper of
| freight is in danger of the penitentiary or
| confiscation of his property by way OF ex-
cessive fines every time he undertakes to
| make shipment from one state to another
Knowing that the rate on the Eastern
| Illinois was but six cents, having no reason
| for shipping over the Alton in preference to
the Eastern Illinois and able to ship all of
| It's oil over the latter road, we insist that
| the facts many Of which the court did not
permit us to show, not alone demonstrate
| innocence, but Inherently forbid the idea
| of guilt --.-
Pleads for Fair Play.
I'VE further insist that whatever may be
ones technical view Of the law relating to
the above questions, every equitable con-
! siderat!on is with the defendant, and If the
| only desire was to give this defendant
| square deal this prosecution would never
have been instituted.
| ''The American public not only believes In
fair play in the abstract, but, with all the
| facts before it, it has the capacity to deter
| mine whether defendant. rich or poor,
| has received square DEAL
For all these reasons the Standard Oil
/ Company asserts that 1t Is not even tech
| nically guilty and that 1t ought never to
| have been prosecuted because of the claim
| ed failure of railroad company-which has
| neither been indicted nor prosecuted-tO file
Its tariff and that the prosecution of this
| defendant under the circumstances of this
| case is a prostitution of the spirit and the
| high purposes Of the interstate commerce
! act"