The news-democrat. (Providence, R.I.) 1906-1909, 1908-01-17

Oil officials said that other large shippers
in the territory had been guilty con-
sderng the fact that these shippers in-
cludcd the packers and elevator men OF
Chicago the action Of the grand Jury IL
calling upon President M5ffett 10 furnish
evidence of their wrong-dcing may be
interpreted as a demand for an clabora-
tion Of the obvious but tho fact that a
ratc-boQk containing these freight rates
for other shippers was offered ine evil
dencc during the trial and ruled out by
Judge Lands WAS kept cut of sight.
President Moffctt would rot, OF course.
accept the invitation cf tie grand jury
although he might have been pardoLei
ii he had referred them Il various official
investigation BY the interstate Com
merce Commission anG other depart
ments OF the Government
We come back, therefore, 10 the cCli-
clusion OF the whole matter, which is
that the Standard Oil Company of In
diana was fined an amount equal to seven
or eight times the value Of its entire
property, because lis traffic department
did not verify the statement of the Alton
rate clerk that the sx-cent commodity
rate OH oil had been properly filed with
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
There is no evidence, and none was intro
duced at the trial, that any shipper of oil
from Chicago territory had been inter-
fered with by the eighteen-cent rate nor
that the failure of the Alton to file its six
cent rate had resulted in any discrimina
ton against any independent shipper
we must take this on the word of the
Commissioner of Corporations and OF
Judge Landis. Neither is it denied even
shipper Of oil, whom he pictures as being
driven out of business by this discrimina-
ton of the Alton. could have shipped all
the oil he desired to ship from Whiting
via Dolton over the lines of the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois to East St. Louis.
In short, President Moffett's defence is
still good, and we predict will be so de-
clared by the higher court.
The Standard Oil Company has been
charged with all manner of crimes and
misdemeanors. Beginning with the fa-
nous Rice of Marietta, passing down to
that apostle of popular Liberties, Henry
Demarest Lloyd, with his Wealth
Against the Commonwealth, descending
by easy stages to Miss Tarbell's often
sive personalities, we finally reach the
neither depths Of unfair and baseless mis-
representation in the report of the Com
missioner Of Corporations. The Standard
has been charged with every form of
commercial piracy and with most of the
crimes on the corporation calendar. Af
ter long years of strenuous attack, under
the leadership of the President of the
United States, the corporation is at last
dragged to the bar of justice to answer
for its misdoings. The whole strength
of the Government is directed against it,
and at last, we are told, the Standard Oil
Company is to pay the penalty of its
crimes, and it is finally convicted of hav-
ing failed to verify the statement of rate
clerk and. is forthwith fined a prodigious
sum, measured by the car. Under the old
criminal law, the theft of property worth
more than a shilling was punishable by
death. Under the Interpretation of the
Interstate Commerce law by Theodore
Roosevelt and Judge Kenesaw Lands, a
technical error of traffic official is made
the excuse for the conhscation of vast
amount Of property.