The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-03

| pany of Indiana and had imposed fines
aggregating $29.24O,OOO.
The president had no comment to
make on the decision.
DENIED A SQUARE DEAL.
President of Indiana Company Issues
Statement.
New York, Aug. 3-President Jas.
A. MOffatt of the Standard Oil COM
pany of Indiana made the following
statement today in reference to the
Judgment by Judge Lands pronounced
in Chicago:
THE court having pronounced it's
judgment in the, case of the United
States VS.. Standard Oil company of
Indiana, there can now be no impro-
priety in stating our position to the
American people.
THE facts in this case are simple
and easily understood. The Standard
Oil company of Indiana was convicted
of receiving what the government
claimed was a concession from the
Chicago & Alton in the shipment of
oil from it's refineries at Whiting, Ind,
to East st. Louis. Ill. The contention
of the government was that the lawful
rate was 8 cents per 100 pounds be-
tween these two points. The defend
ant claims:
''First-That the lawful rate was six
cents and, secondly. If six cents was
not the lawful rate It was the rate is
Su0O TO the SldnQdfQ Dy TIE AllOH DIS
the lawful rate and the Standard was
justified in believing from it's own in
vestigation and from the information
from the railroad company that six
cents was the lawful rate.
1.-THE Is cent rate was class and
not a commodity rate, and the chair
man of the Chicago and ST. Louis Traf-
fic association. the association issuing
the 8 ntsclass rate. under oath tes-
titled that it was never applied and
nj n tn
Thousands of tons of freight have
been shipped from these points during
the past fifteen years under the same
circumstances as the Standard ship
ments' 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 select
ing the Standard as the victim?
Evidence Shut Out.
1.-THE Standard Oil company shipped
about third of all the oil that
went from Whiting to East st. Louis
over the Eastern Illinois, the other
two-thirds going over the Alton and
the Burlington. On the trial of the
witnesses who were on the stand that
not only during the period covered
by the Indictment but continuously
from 1895 the Eastern Illinois had
lawful published and filed rate be-
tween Whiting and East st. Louis on
oil of six cents per 100 pounds and
that the Standard Oil company ship
ped at such rate over the Eastern Illi-
nois more than two thousand cars of
oil each year during said period. To
this offer the government through its
attorneys strenuously objected and the
court sustained such objection. The
defendant contended. and still does
contend, that this proof would have
shown that the Standard
Oil company had no possible motive
in shipping over the Alton and there
bv violating the law, when itsmight
lust as readily and conveniently have
all of its oil over the Eastern
Illinois and not have violated any law.
1.-THE defendant also offered to prove
that packing house products during
the same period of time were carried |
between these same points under a |
rate for ten cents; malt
Z cents; brick five cents; cornmeal z; |
rosin 6 IL cents; starch cents; peas, |
beans and popcorn 8 cents; linseed oil |
in tank cars cents; glycerine cents. |
The court again sustained the objec- |
lions of government counsel and the |
Judge again prohibited us from show
ing the jury how absurd was the gov
claim that the rate, for ex-
ample, on linseed oil was cents
while on petroleum oil it was Is
cents.
Under such circumstances and in
view of the fact that the petroleum
had been openly carried over the
-hree roads from Whiting to West st. |
Louis for from 10 to IA years for s
cents, what a draft it is on human
for the prosecution to assert
hat 10 cents was the only possible
awful rate.
What the Standard Proved.
'"The uncontradicted evidence show
ID that the Standard Oil company was
ldvised by the rate clerk of the Chi
ago & Alton that this cent rate was
lied with the interstate commerce
commission.
The court, however. instructed the
ury that the shipper must know not
'nly what the rate was but also that
UGH rate was actually filed with the
interstate commerce commission, that
s to say that the view of the court
vas a shipper must know absolutely
What was the legal rate at the risk of
offering enormous penalty in event
ither that he was nisinformed by the
abroad company or that in the event
lie. did not exercise as much diligence
n the judgment of the court as he
hould have exercised in ascertaining
THAT the rate really was.
If this Is the law, every shipper; Of
reight is in danger of the peniten- !
larry or conf1scation of his property
Y way of excessive fines every time !
e undertakes to make a shipment
rom one state to another. :
knowing that the rate on the