Arizona silver belt., 1907-09-01
Claims that Heavy Fine Im- posed by Judge LandiS Was Entirely Out of Reason,
JUST A SPECIMEN OF
 FREMZlED POLITICS
Does Not Believe That Higher Courts Will Sustain Judg- ment-CIaim That It Puts
 LandiS in a Very Bad Light,

Since the days of supreme court de- cisions over the constitutional questions, such as the legal tender act, etc., aris- ing out of the Civil war, no legal de- cision in this country has created so much talk as that of Judge Landis i'm posing a fine of S29,240,00O upon the Standard Oil company for accepting un- lawful railroad rates, says the Boston News Bureau.
 Combined with the financial situation and the political situation, the issue between the government and the corpor- ationS, as represented by Standard Oil finance, is everywhere the talk of indi- viduals; in the home, on the street, on the train and on the steamboat.
 The eagerness of the discussion is not at all reflected in the newspapers of the day. Everybody who takes an interest in political, financial or business affairs is waxing warm either for or against the government.
 The Standard Oil side of the case was not adequately set forth in the an
 
 The statements in the leading daily papers are largely colored by their. political position and the statements in such papers as the Oil City Derrick are too strong upon the side of the Stand ard Oil to carry any conviction.
 The best statement of the facts in the case, if they be facts undisputed by the government, we find in the leading editorial in last week s Leslie s under the caption of ''The Injustice of Jus ticc.
 This subject is so important that we we present the entire editorial because it states many things and facts which everyone should have at hand for future discussions on this subject.
 The editorial is as follows
 "The fine of S29,240,OOO imposed upon the Standard Oil Company of In. diana, by Judge Landis, represents the maximum penalty of s2O,OOO for each offense under the indictments. The company was indicted for every car load shipment. It was not indicted for every train load, but for every car in a train. It might just as we'll have been indicted for each barrel of oil. ! and, if the vindietive purpose was to wipe out the Standard Oil company, the . indictments might have been on every gallon of oil shipped, and the penalty | could have been made SO heavy that . this great American industry would | have been wiped off the face of the . earth.
 "It may be unpopular-it certainly is unfashionable-to point out that the Standard Oil was not charged with re- ceiving a rebate. It was charged that | it received a concession or special rate on shipments of oil from its refinery at Whiting, Ind, to East St. Louis. While the lawful rate was IS cents per 100 pounds between these two points on the Chicago & Alton railroad, the Standard Oil company, from September l, 1903, to March l, 1905. shipped oil to the value of $645,000 at the rate of cents per 100 pounds. For shipping at con- cession the company has been fined fifty times the value of the oil it shipped The unfairness of such pen atty is obvious. and no thoughtful man believes that the higher courts will sus- tain it.
 ''It is simple justice 10 say that the Standard Oil company asserts that the lawful rate per 100 pounds from Whit ing to East St. Louis was cents and that, if that was not the lawful rate, it was the rate given to the company as lawful by the Chicago & Alton railroad; further, that the 1S-cent rate was a '" class and not commodity rate, and that the traffic association which issued it testified under oath that the 1s-eent rate was never applied, and was never intended to apply, to oil; that packing house products were carried between the same points under "com- modity" rate for 10 cents a hundred, malt : cents, cornmeal cents, glycer- inc 6 cents, brick cents and linseed oil in tanks 8 cents. The Standard Oil company was prohibited by Judge Lan- dis from showing to the jury the absurd ity of rate on linseed oil of s cents and on petroleum of IS cents. Still further, the company was ready to show that petroleum had been openly carried over the three roads from Whit ing to East St. Louis for from ten to fourteen years for cents a hundred, and that it was, therefore, absurd for the prosecution to assert that IS cents was the only possible lawful rate. This is the remarkable statement openly made by the defense, and, if true-and thus far its truth has not been chal- lenged-it puts Judge Landis in very ii bad light and calls for a thorough in- vestigation. As II. II. Rogers tersely puts it; 'Fair-minded and honorable men will decide as to the logic and the law as the case progresses.
 If, as Judge Landis appears to hold, any shipper who accepts a rate from the agent of a railroad without the pre- caution to go or send to Washington and ascertain if that is the rate legally filed with the interstate commerce com mission, can be indicted, found guilty and sentenced to pay a penalty of $2O,- 900 for every shipment, even if inno- gently made-then something is' wrong with the law or with our courts of jus tice. Of course, after having fixed the maximum penalty in the case of the Standard Oil, Judge Landis cannot be