The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-10

any consequence is Cleveland, -.
Now it has been pointed out repeat
edly In the last six or seven years that
the Standard was able to ship from
Whiting a much lower rates than the
independents could ship from CLEVELAND
the distances being the same or
course this could only have been done.
through some sort of connfVance with
the freight agents.
Il have no doubt that all these facts
were taken into consideration by Judge
Lands. If the Standard had been ship
ping oil over the Chicago & Alton with
out having an advantage over comped-
tors, it is the first time in 80 years that
it has shipped oil without having an
advantage.
1.-The point is that the public for S5
years has been trying to make the
Standard Oil company play fair 1t has
given the trust repeated warnings in
the way of public uprisings, the pass
age of laws and adverse decisions. But
every time the trust has snapped its
fingers and gone on in the same old
way.
1T is a sort of insolence which a
people would be very supine to tolerate
indefinitely. 1t is being demonstrated
clearly that the American people do not
propose to endure il any longer. The
Standard Oil men are not only insolenr.
but they are stupid as we'll, and show
that they entirely misunderstood the
power of public opinion and the gen
uineness of the public's sense of fair
play.
They have had every chance to re
adjust their business and conduct 1t as
gentlemen should, and all they have
ever done, after a public explosion, is
to readujst 1T so they could carry IN
their same old practices in a new way.
The DespicabIe Spy System.
1T is not merely taking illegal rates
the miSdemeanor of which they
We're convicted in Chicago-that the
public has against them. Their meth
DDS of competition are perfectly we'll
known in all parts of the country.
There are hundreds of towns in which
their citizens have seen these methods
in operation. They have a spy system
which they apply to shipments of in |
dependents which would do credit to
the robber barons of the middle ages. |
They have no pride in the quality |
OF their product, but always give as
poor grade as they can work off on |
the public. The oil sold in the south |
west at high prices is of the very poor |
est quality, as it is everywhere that |
the public has not been educated up |
to the higher grades.
Commissioner Herbert Knox Smith |
charges them with persistently under |
weighing and underm easuring. That |
is one of the oldest charges made |
against the Standard, but it has been
one very difficult to prove, and I hope |
that Commissioner Smith will be able |
to show good evidence on this point.
Mr.. Rockefeller never has taken |
very seriously His comment on
Judge Landis's decision-that the |
judge would be dead a good many
years before the fine was paid-is
of him. He always
shows the same confidence that he
Will be able to prove himself stronger
than the government.
81 hope the fine will be collected,
but think. with Mr.. Rockefeller, that
it will be some time before it will be
~ l.
will pay 1.-THE public always pays
under present conditions.
1T is not that I do not believe that |
we are eventually going to bring the
Standard Oil company down to doing
a strictly legal business. 1 believe we
are. but it is going to take a good !
many years yet of hard fighting.
Remedy Lies in Transportation.
ut is a transportation question.
is a public function. If
we keep on vigorously as we have be-
gun in dealing with the transportation
question. we shall get it to a point
where every shipper Will have a fair
show-where the Standard will have
no advantage, either by means of
favor from the railroads or by its
pipeline system over any shipper, big
or little.
ST believe this can be accomplished
by a vigorous enforcement of the laws
that we now have, provided these laws
which will have to be put in the same l.
class with the railroads as com Gon
carriers When once all shippers Are
On an equal footing the independents
Will have a chance to form their own
com binations. and we would then nat
lrally see many different combinations
n the oil business. as there are in
other businesses. and that, of course,
IS the thing to be desired.
1.-The collection of a fine such as has
been imposed would be rebuke at
tended by great odium, but 1t is too
much to expect that this odium will
reach Mr.. Rockefeller. 1 really be-
ieve that he is convinced of his own
righteousness. He really has what he
wants and that is money. 1 suppose
man who has no collective sense, no
feelings for the rights of the mass,
must be pretty we'll deadened to the
contempt of the mass. But I think
he is altogether the exceptions; most
Of the Standard men are pretty human |
fellows They don't like to be de-
spised.
Mr.. Rockefeller is a fanatic. His
great strength lies in his power to con-
work TO it without the least deviation.
He has been doing that from the first.
put he never has grown morally or
socially. They had such men in the
middle ages, but there are not many
Of them nowadays.
Il suppose some people think I am
vicious toward the Standard OIL COM
pany, but it is not true. 1t is to me
only an interesting question of the day.
These men have thought they
would be justified by their success but |