The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-01-30
Commissioner Smith VS.. The Standard Oil Co.
From the Railway Woyza, January 3, 1905.

Chicago. They terminate at BOLTON, from which
point entrance is made over the Belt Line. Whit
ing, where the oil freight originates, is not on
the lines of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois,
which receives its Whiting freight from the Belt
Line at BOLTON. The former practice, now dis
continued, in filing tariffs was to make them
read from a point on the line of the filing road,
sheet, that the tariff would apply to other points,
e. G., Whiting. The Chicago and Eastern Illinois
followed this practice in filing its rate from Dol
ton, and making a note on the sheet that is ap-
piled to Whiting. This was in 1895 when this
method of filing tariffs was in common use.
Now let us see in what way the intending
shipper of oil could be misled and deceived by
the fact that the Chicago and Eastern Illinois
had not filed a rate reading from Whiting.
Commissioned Smith contends that "concealnent
is the only motive for such a circuitous arrange
lnent," j. e., that this method of filing the rate
was intended to mislead intending competitors
of the Standard Oil Company. Suppose such a
prospective oil rcfiner had applied to the Inter
state Commerce Commission for the rate from
Chicago to I,as! St. Louis over the Chicago and
Eastern Illinois, he would have been informed
that the only rate filed with the commission by
this company was Oh cents from Dolton, and
he would have been further informed, if indeed
he did not know this already, that this rate ap-
Piled throughout Chicago territory. So that
whether he wished to locate his plant at Whit
ing, or anywhere else about Chicago, under IN
arrangement of long standing, and which applies
to all the industrial towns i'll the neighborllood
of Chicago, he could have his freight delivered
over the Belt Line to the Chicago and Eastern
Illinois at Dolton and transported to East St.
Louis at a rate of oA cents. Where then is the
concealment which the Commissioners of Corpo-
rations makes SO much of? Any rate-from
BOLTON on the Eastern Illinois or Chappell on
the Alton, or Harvey on the Illinois Central, or
Blue Island on the Rock Island, applies through
out Chicago territory to shipments from Whit
ing, as to shipments from any other point i'll the
district. So far from the Eastern Illinois filing
its rate from Dolton in order to deceive the
shipper, it is the Commissioner of Corporations
who, either betrays his gross ignorance of trans
portation customs in Chicago territory or relies
on the public ignorance Of these customs to
deceive the public too apt to accept unquestion-
ingly every statement made by a Government
official as necessarily true, although, as in the
present instance, a careful examination shows
these statements to be false.
The final point made by President Moffett that
other commodities of a character similar to OF
were carried at much lower rates than IS cents
the Commissioner Of Corporations discusses onl,
with the remark that the reasonableness oil
this rate is not i'll question. The question j.
whether this rate constituted a discrimination
as against other shippers Of oil" and he also
makes much Of the failure of President Moffctt
to produce before the grand jury evidence of the
alleged illegal acts of which the Standard Oh
official said that other large shippers IN the ter.