Omaha daily bee., 1907-08-04
Amount Fifty Times as Much as Value
of Oil Carried.
MAKES CLAIM OF INNOCENCE
Vice President Mofit Says Finding is
Unjust to All Shippers.
PRESIDENT DECLINES TO TALK
At oyster Bay IL is Announced that
Mr.. Roosevelt Has No Comment
to Make on Action of
Court.

NEW YORK. Aug s.-President James
A. Moffett Of the Standard OIL company Of
Indiana made the following statement
today in reference TO the judgment by
Judge lands pronounced in Chicago:
The court having pronounced its judg-
against the Standard Oil company OF In
diana, there can now be no Improperly in
stating our position to the American peo-
pie
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 con-
cession from the Chicago & Alton in the
shipment of oil from its refinery at Whit
ingp Ind, to East ST. Louis, Ill. The con-
tention of the government was that the
lawful rate was Is cents per 100 pounds
between these two points. The defendant
cents; and. secondly, II cents was not
the lawful rate II 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 company that cents was the law
The ls-cent rate was class" and not a
commodity rate, and the chairman of
the Chicago and St. Louis Traffic associa-
class rate, under oath testified that II was
never applied and was never intended to
apply to oil.
Many shippers in Same Plight.
Thousands of tons Of freight have been
shlpped from these points during the last
nfteen years under the same circumstances
the Standard shipments, and II the
STANDARD Is guilty In this case. so is
manufacturing territory. Is there a pur-
pose in selecting the Standard as the VIC
The Standard OIL company shipped about
one-third of all the oil that went from
Mhi{fiing OF East 81 Louis over the East
the Alton and the Burlington. on the trial
OF the case the defendant offered to show
by witnesses who were on the stand that
not only during the period covered by
the indictment, but continuously from 1895
the Eastern Illinois had a lawful published
ana filed rate between Whiting and East
81. Louis on oil of cents per 100 pounds
and that the Standard OH company shipped
at this rate over the Eastern Illinois more
this period. To his offer the government
through its attorneys strenously objected
and the court sustained such objection.
The defendant contended and still does
contend, that this proof would have con-
clusively shown that the Standard OIL
company had no possible motive in shipping
over the Atom and thereby violating the
law, when IL might just as readily and
conveniently have shipped all OF its oil
over the Eastern Illinois and not have
Packing House Products.
The defendant also offered to prove that
packing house products, during the same
ptIlOo OF Ilfne, were carried between these
same points under Commodity rate for
ten rates; malt Z cents; brick cents;
corn meal, cents; rosin. 81 cents; starch
linseed oil in tank cars, cents; glycerine
cents. The court again sustained the OBJ
Jections Of government counsel and the
judge again prohibited US from showing
the jury how absurd was the governments
claim that the rate for example, on linseed
on was cents, while on petroleum oil
Under circumstances. and in view OF
the fact that petroleum had been openly
TO East St, Louis from ten to fourteen
years for cents, what a draft ii is on
human credulity for the prosecution to as
lawful rate.
The uncontradicsted evidence showed
the STANDARD Oil company was advised by
the rate clerk OF the Chicago and Alton
that this scent rate was filed with the
Interstate Commerce commission.
Court, however, instructed the fury that
the shipper must know not only what tbe
rate was. but also that such rate was
actually hled with the Interstate Com
merce commission; that is TO say, the view
Of the court was that a shipper must know
absolutely what was the legal rate at the
risk OF suffering enormous penalties In the
event either that he was misinforrned by
the railroad company, or in the event that
he did not exercise as much diligence as In
the Judgment of court he should have ex-
was.
Makes Claim OF Innocence.
II this is the law, every shipper Of freight
is In danger Of the penitentiary or confsca-
ton Of his property by way of excessive
hnes every time he undertakes to make A
shipment from one state to another
knowing that the rate on the Eastern
Illinois was but cents, having no reason
for shipping over the Alton in preference
TO the Eastern Illinois, and able TO shin An
OF Its oil over the latter road we insist
that the facts many Of which the court
did not permit US to show, not alone de-
monstrate innocence, but inherently forbid
the idea OF guilt.
We further insist that whatever NAV he
ones technical view of the law relating
20 the above questions, every euuitahls
consideration is with the defendant and
II the only desire was TO give this de-
fendant a square deal this prosecution
would never have been Instituted.
The American public not only believes in
fair play in the abstract. but with ali the
facts before II, II has the capacity to de-
termine whether a defendant rich or moor
has received a square deal"
For all these reasons the Standard on
company asserts that Il is not even tech
nicany guilty and that IL ought never To
have been prosecuted because Of the
claimed failure OF a railroad comnany~
which has neither heen Indicted or prose
cuted-to file it's tsriff, and that the PROSE
cution OF this defendant under the cir
cumstances OF this case is a prostitution ~
the spirit and the high purpose OF the in
terstate commerce act.