The Newtown bee., 1907-06-14

hundred. Counsel for the Standard Oil Company offered in court, before Judge Landis, to prove that the rates on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois aud the Alton Roads were made on the same basis, and that the company could nave shipped all it's oil over the former road, and that this was con elusive proof that it could have had from the Alton. Judge Landis held that what the Standard Oil did, or could do, with one road had nothing | to do with it's acceptance Of rate from the Alton that had not been Ii ed as the legal rate with the Inter state Commerce Commission. The Alton had given the Oil Company the siX-cent rate, but the Judge charged | the jury that. no matter 1T this rate had been given, the defendant should have ascertained whether it was the rate formally and officially published and filed with the Inte "state Com | marce Commission at Washington. According to this, 1t appears that S lipper Can apply to railroad frelgnt agent for rates, accept what is given nd believe them to be lawful, only to ind that he has been guilty of an of- iense punishable by fine or SEQ. OOO, because higher rate had been official ly filed at Washington. The shipper might have had no intention to viO- late the law, but that would make no difference.
 This is not all. The Standard Oil Company's freight agent paid the rate charged by the Alton, but it was held that the legal rate, which the Alton had established years before, was Is cents per hundred, though it was shown that this rate had become obso- ete and thatsthe present reorganlzed Alton Railway had never used it. 1t was shown that it was an unreaSOna- ble rate because the Alton charged only IT cents per hundred from Toledo to St Louis, which was twice the dis tance from Whiting to East St Louis on which the six cent rate had beer paid bythe Standard Oil. Judge Ian dis, for some inSc rutable reason, WOulC not permit these facts to go before tht l jury, and stated that it made no differ ence what other roads charged, tha the Alton's only published rate was Il ment of the Standard Oil Compan. was supposed to know this and shOult not have accepted a lower rate iron the Alton, even though this was tn rate it was paying legally on the t." other roads with which it was dOin most of the business. This is al astonishing ruling, and, if it should b sustained by the higher courts, 1t vii be crime for a shipper to accept
 rate given him by a freight agent if be proved subsequently, by some muck raker that this was not the rate file' with the Interstate Commerce Com mission at Washington. Further, will be crime for a shipper, who ha I a rate on one line between certa1 points, to ship via some other line 8 this rate. when his shipments are 1T vited by another road, if it be subs' quently discovered that an obsolet tariff, at much higher rate, has bee
 filed at Washington and fallen int IdiSuSe.
 The conviction of the Standard O
 Company at Chicago has been cited . disprove the statement publicly mac
 by MT Archbold and MT Rogers. tw
 of it's directors, that the company hs
 not been guilty of relating since th strict interpreta tion of the law som
 years ago. That these gentlemen wei
 justified in making this statement,
 spite of the decision in the Chicae
 case, is still asserted, for it is con
 dently believed that the higher cOur
 must overrule the recent decision
 [Leslie's Weekly.