The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-08-08
FINE on RECORD
Standard Oh Company Must
Pay
JUDGE LANDS STANDING FIRM
STANDARD OIL Company Given Largest
Fine Ever Imposed ia History Of
Z American JurisprndeEce More
Than 1s1 Tines Am0na Received
Through Relating Operations.

Chicago, Special. Judge Kenesaw
NJ. Landls Saturday In the United
States District Court fined the Stan-
dard Oil Company OF Indiana $29,-
24O,000 for violations of the law
against accepting rebates from rail
roads. The fine is the largest ever
assessed against any individuals or
any coTporation IN the history OF
American criminal Jurisprudence, aid
is slightly more Fthsn~1A times, as
great as the amount received by the
company@through its rebating opera
lions. The case viii be carried to the
highere courts By the defending com
Pany- @vmN. Tr~ne
To penalty imposed upon the con-
paAyis the maximum permitted under
the Law, and it was announced at the
end Of a long opinion in which the
Methods and practices of the Stand
ard Oil Company were mercilessly
scored. The judge, in fact, declared
In his opinion that the officials of the
Standard Oil Company who were res
possible for the practices of which
the corporation was found guilty,
were no better than countergeiters
and thieves, his exact language being:
ave may as well look at this sit
nation squarely. The men who thus
deliberately violate this law wound
counterfeits the coin.sor steals letters
society more deeply than does he who
from the mall"
Judge Lands commenced reading
his decision at 10 o'clock and occu-
pied about one hour in its delivery.
He reviewed the facts in the case
took up the arguments of the attor-
neys for the defense and answered
them, and then passed judgment upon
the company, which he declared vio-
lated the law for the sole purpose of
swelling it's dividends.
The court held that the railroads
have no more right to make a secret
rate for a shipper than a board of
assessors have to make a seaoncebant
assessors would have to make a Sc
cret assessment of any particular
piece OF property. 3D. iaa
The court expressed regret that the
law failed to provide a more serious
punishment than a fine, but insisted
that the penalty should be sufficiently
large to act as a deterrent and not Of
such a size as to encourage the defen-
der to persist in lawlessness. 4.
At the conclusion of his opinion
and after announcing the amount OF
the fine, Judge Lands directed that
a special grand jury be called for the
purpose of inquiring into the acts of
the Chicago & Alton Railroad Com
pany, it having ben proved in the
case just closed that the oil company
accepted rebates from that orpora-
ton. This jury IS summoned for Au-
gust 18th.
The decision of Judge lands
aroused almost as much public inter
est as did the presence of John ID.
Rockefeller and othel officials of the
Standard Oil Company in the court
room on July 9th. The crush was 50
great that a large force of deputy
m%arshalss had much difficulty in con
trolling the crowd that was e%nxiors
to force its way into the court room,
The government was represented
in the court room by United States
District Attorney Sims and Assistant
District Attorney Wilkerson. The
attorneys who tried the case for the
standard Oil Company, John S. NEIL
er, Merit Rosenthal and Alfred d.
Eddy were not present the company
being represented by MERIT Starr a
.Epartner of Mr.. Miller and Chauncey
Martyr from the Office of Mr.. Eddy