The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1907-05-29
The Lexington Dispatch.
Wednesday, May 20. 1907.
Barked On the Wrong Tree.

Barked Or the Wrong Tree.
It took a Chicago jury about two
hours to bring in a verdict of guilty
against the Standard Oil Company,
charged with having sent oil from
Whiting, Ind, to East St. Louis at
six cents a hundred, the legal rate
being eighteen. There was n in
dictment, but many counts-1,4 1853.
For each offense, otherwise called a
count, a fine must be imposed. When
sentence has been pronounced the
company may find S29, 100000 added
to it's list of contingent liabilities.
There is a large margin, however, be-
tween maximum and minimum, ST.
463,0O0 being the lowest figure at
which the trial judge ear mulct the
corporation. His honor specifically
charged that the jury must find in
tent on the part of the defendant to
violate the law.
Naturally the verdict was hailed as
a signal victory for the people. Culp-
ability, not to say criminality, is as
sumed as a matter of course, when
the defendant happens to be a great
corporation, which is held to be sy-
nonymous with a grinding monopoly.
Still, the fact remains that law is not
presumed to di~fferentiate, that it is
protective as well as punitive, that it
is defensive as well as offensive. Also,
the fact remains that injustice can be
done to none without peril to all, rich
and poor alike being in the same boat.
And there are facts in the case against
the Standard Oil Company account of
which can we'll be taken.
There is railroad competition be-
tween the points alluded to above.
The Chicago and Alton asked for part
of the Standard Oil business, offering
transportation at prevailing rates, six
cents a hundred. The offer was ac-
cepted and the business divided. 1t
appears, however, that the Chicago
and Alton was a reorganized road and
that it's predecessor had published
eighteen cents a hundred as its oil
rate. It also appears that this rate
had gone into desuetude, being super
ceded in everything but the matter of
publication, which little legal formal
ity had been overlooked. Armed with
this technicality, the government in
voked the pains and penalties of law.
Statutes have been described as
common sense crystalized. The de-
PENDANT diverted to the Chicago and
Alton part of the patronage two other
roads enjoyed. As no other manu-
facturer ships oil between the points,
there could, of course, be no effort to
grind a competitor. And as neither
more nor less was paid to one line
than to each of the two others, it was
a clear case of share and share alike
as far as the carrying corporations
were concerned. So, nothing can be
clearer than that there was no motive
for violating law, the n thing clear
being the absence of ~inducement.
Nor, finally, could any harm come to
the consumer, the company's rule
being to make the selling prices plus
the freight.
For what, therefore, is the con
pany to be fned?& Certainly not for
restraining trade, because there was
no competition. Certainly not for
aiding and ahstting a railroad monop-
oily. because adistributed it's patron
age. Certainly not for conspiring and
plotting to rob the consumer, because
the aforesaid distribution cost him
nothing. AS a matter of fact, dam
age was done to literally nobody,
neither public nor private interests
being either injured or menaeed. The
head and front of the company's
offending Isl that it did not pay a rate
not only obsolete, but ridiculous. It
only remaining to be added that it is
not more ridiculous than the law
which, in such circumstances, is Ear
ried to enforcement. AS to the govern
ment lawyers, they were barking up
the wrong tree--Broeklyn Daily