The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-08-17

McSSf6. fcCOt, w uAAuoOAs Val
land, Goudain, Guilbeau, Frere,
Smith, Shaffer and Hebert.
THE STANDARD on FINE.
Judge Kenesaw NJ. Lands, in
the United States district court at
Chicago, fined the Standard Oil
Company of Indiana 500, FAC, coo
for violations of the law against
accepting rebates from railroads.
An Associated Press dispatch says:
"The fine is the largest ever as
sessed against any individuals or
any corporation in the history of
American criminal jurisprudence,
and is slightly more than 131 times
az great as the amount received by
the company through it's rebating
operations. The case will be car
ried to the higher courts by the
defendant company. The penalty
imposed upon the company is 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
Standard Oil company were merci-
lessly scored. The judge, in fact,
declared in his opinion that the
officials of the Standard Oil COM
pany who were responsible for the
practices of which the corporation
was found guilty we're no better
than counterfeiters and thieves,
the exact language being: we
may as we'll look at this situation
squarely. The men who thus de-
liberately violate this law wrongs
society more deeply than does he
who counterfeits the coins, or
steals letters from the mall
Judge Lands commenced reading
his decision at 10 o'clock, and oc-
cupied about one hour in it's de.
livery. He reviewed the facts in
the case, took up the arguments of
the attorneys for the defense and
answered them and then passed
judgment upon the company,
which he declared violated the law
for the sole purpose of swelling its
dividends. The court held that
the railroads have no more right to
make q secret rate flor a shipper
than a board of assessors would
have to make a secret assessment
on any particular piece of prop
erty. The court expressed regret
that the law failed to provide more
serious punishment than a fine,
but insisted that the penalty
should be sufficiently large to act
as a deterrent and not of such
size as to encourage the defendant
to persist in lawlessness. 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 inqniring into the
acts of the Chicago and Alton
company, it having been proved
in the case just closed that the oil
company accepted rebates from
that corporation. The jury is
summoned for August ID. The
decision of Judge Lands aroused
almost as much public interest as
did the presence of John D. Rookie
teller and other officials of the
Standard Oil company in the court
room on July 6. The crush was so
great that a large force of deputy
marshals had much difficulty in
controlling the crowd that was
anxious to force its way into the
court room. The government was
represented in the court room by
the United States District Attorney
Sims and Assistant District At
torney Wilkerson. The attorneys
who tried the case for the Standard
Oil company, John S. Miller,
Moritz Rosenthal and Albert D.
Eddy were not present, the COM
pany being represented by Merritt
Starr, a partner of Mr.. Miller, and
Chauncey Martyr, from the office
of Mr.. Eddy. Under the seven in
dictments still pending against the
Standard Oil company an adj
ditional fine amounting to S88, 44O,-
600 may be levied against the
if it is found guilty or
trial. There are in these seven
q total of 4,422l
The steam railroad locomotive
is growing in size and hauling
correspondingly with the |
increased size of the freight cars |
and the length of the trains. The |
capacity of the latest one
for the Erie railroad is |