The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-02-01
STANDARD OIL IS
worst OF TRUSTS
ACCUSED OF MANY CRIMES BY
INTERSTATE COMMERCE
COMMISSION.
Probe Bares NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ton, False Pretenses, Bribery, Cor
ruption of Press and Debauchery
of Public Officials Charged.

FuPIiOn OI FFCSS anu DSpduSuSf)
of Public Officials Charged.
Washington, Jan. 29.-The most ter
rife arraignment of the Standard Oh
company yet made by either private
or public investigator was that filed
with congress Monday by the inter
state commerce commission.
Every conceivable corporate crime
from discrimination and false pre-
lenses to bribery, corruption of the
press and debauchery of public Off
Gals, is contained in the catalogue
of charges.
After long and painstaking inves
tigation ordered by congress, in which
hundreds of witnesses were examined
in various cities of the country, and
ample opportunity was given the oil
octopus to defend itself, the commits.
sion makes report that completely
overshadows the sensational disclos,
ures revealed in the report of Com.
missioner of Corporations Garfield on
the same subject last May.
Bares Oil Monopoly.
Garfield's report was confined large
ly to the relations of the Standard Oil
company to the railroads of the coun-
try; the Interstate commerce commits
sion's report goes into the whole sub
ject of monopolistic control of the oil
market. With a wealth of detail it de-
scribes the devious methods employed
bv the Rockefeller combine to crush
competition.
Some of these methods are outlined
by the commission as follows:
1.-The Standard has sold different
grades of oil at different prices from
the same barrel.
Widespread Bribery Charged.
1T has paid employees of independent
oil companies for information as to the
business of those competitors, and
has paid employees of industrial COM
panies to secure the adoption of it's
oil in preference to that of it's COM
petitors.
1T has followed every barrel of in
dependent oil to its destination It's
agents are instructed to secure custo-
mers at any sacrifice.
1T has tempered with the oil in
spectors in different states. The laws
of several states concerning the in
spection of oil are singularly defec-
tive, and this has been turned to
profit by the Standard.
''The Standard buys advertising
space in many newspapers which it
fills, not with advertisements, but with
reading matter prepared by agents
kept for that purpose and paid for at
advertising rates, as ordinary news.
The assumption is that this literature
furnishes many of the ideas touching
the great benefits conferred upon the
public by the Standard Oil company.
Operates "Fake" Concerns.
"The operation of such fake indie
pendent concerns has been one of it's
most effective means of destroying
competition.
The Standard has habitually reduced
the price against its competitors in
a particular locality while maintain
ing its prices at other places. When
competition was destroyed, it restored
or advanced former prices"
Government Must Take Action.
1T is becoming necessary" says the
report, for the uprooting of estab-
lished wrongs and the prevention of
others, that the government shall fix
in the first instance the rates and reg
ulations for the transportation of oil.
This method has been adopted by the
legislature of one state.
1T will probably be found necessary
TO disassociate, in the case of oil, as
in that of other commodities, the
function of transportation from that
of production and transportation.
The investigation by the commits
sion failed to disclose any instance
where railway company has been
interested directly in oil lands or in
petroleum production, only one In
stance was discovered where officials
of railway company were interested
in the production and sale of oil.