The Green Forest tribune., 1908-01-31
Commissioner Smith vs. The Standard OH Co.
From Ae Rail0Oay Woyld, January 3, 1QoS.

Chicago. They terminate at Dolton, from which point entrance is made over the Belt Line. Whiting, where the oil freight originates, is not on the lines of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, which receives it's Whiting freight from the Belt Line at Dolton The former practice, now discontinued, in filing tariffs was to make them read from point on the line of the fil- ing road, and it was also general to state on the same sheet that the tariff would apply to other points, e. g., Whiting. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois followed this practice in filing its rate from Dolton, and making a note on the sheet that is applied 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 & Eastern Illinois had not filed a rate reading from Whiting. Commissioner Smith contends that Conceal ment is the only motive for such circuitous arrangement" i. e. that this method of filing the rate was intended to mislead intending competitors of the Standard Oil Company. Suppose such prospective oil refner had ap- piled to the Interstate Commerce Commission for the rate from Chicago to East St. Louis over the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, he would have been informed that the only rate filed with the commission by this company was 6A cents from Dolton, and he would have been further informed, if indeed he did not know this already, that this rate applied throughout Chicago territory. So that whether he wished to locate his plant at Whiting, or anywhere else about Chicago, under an arrangement of long standing, and which applies to all the in- dustrial towns in the neighborhood of Chica- go he could have his freight delivered over the Belt Line to the Chicago & Eastern Illi- of Do1t np1 cyk Louis at a rate of 6A cents. Where then is the concealment which the Commissioner of Corporations makes so much of? Any rate from Dolton on the Eastern Illinois or Chap pell on the Alton, or Harvey on the Illinois Central, or Blue Island on the Rock Island, applies throughout Chicago territory to ship ments from any other point in 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 transpor- tation customs in Chicago territory or relies on the public ignorance of these customs to deceive the public too apt to accept unques- toningly every statement made by Govern ment official as necessarily true, although, as in the present instance, careful examination shows these statements to be false
 The final point made by President Moffett that other commodities of character similar to oil were carried at much lower rates than IS cents, the Commissioner of Corporations discusses only with the remark that ethe 'reasonableness' of this rate is not in question. The question is whether this rate constituted discrimination as against other shippers of oil,' and he also makes much of the failure of President Moffett to produce before the grand jury evidence of the alleged illegal acts of which the Standard Oil official said that other