The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-24
Commissioner Smith v. The Standard Oil Co.
From the Railpvay World, January 3, 1908.

recognized as the strongest rebuttal argument advanced by the Standard.
 In fact it is as weak and inconclusive as the remainder of his argument The lines of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois do not run into 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 and Eastern Illi- nois, which receives its Whiting freight from the Belt Line at Doltcn The former practice, now discontinued, in filing tariffs was to make them read from point on the line of the filing road, and 1t was also general to state on. the same sheet that the tariff would apply to other points, C. g., Whiting. The Chicago and East ern Illinois followed this practice in filing it's rate from D61ton and making a note on the sheet that it 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 mised and deceived by the fact that the Chicago and Eastern Illinois had not filed a rate reading from Whiting. Commissioner Smith contends that Conceal ment is the only motive for such circuitous ar- rangement,' i. e., that this method of filing the rate was intended to nrislead intending compet- itors of the Standard On Company. Suppose such prospective oil refiner had applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for the rate from Chicago to East St. Louis over the Chi cago and Eastern Illinois; he would have been. informed that the only rate filed with the com mission by this company was IA cents from Doton and he would have been further in formed, if indeed he did not know this already, that this rate applied throughout Chicago ter rtory. So that whether he wished to locate his plant at Whiting. or anywhere else about Chicago, under an arrangement of long stand- ing, and which applies to all the industrial towns in the neighborhood of Chicago. he could have his freight delivered over the Belt Line to the Chicago and Eastern Illinois at Doton and transported to East St. Louis at a rate of 1-i cents. Where then, is the concealment which the Commissioner of Corporations makes so much of? Any rate-from Dolton on the East ern Illinois or Chappell on the Alton. Har- vey on the Illinois Central. or Blue Island on the Rock Island-applies throughout ChicaeH territory to shipments from Whiting, as to ship ments from any other point in the district So far from the Eastern Illinois filing it's rate from Dolton in order to deceive the shipper. it is the Commissioner of Corporations who either be- trays his gross ignorance of transportation GUS toms in Chicago territory ar relies on the pub lie ignorance of these customs to deceive the public too apt to accept unquestioninglv every statement made by 8 Government official as necessarily true although. as in the present in stance careful examination shows these state ments to be false.
 The final point made hy President Moffett that other commodities of a character similar to oil were carried at much lower rates than IS cents. the Commissioner of Corporations dis cusses only with the remark that the reason ableness' of this rate is not in question The question is whether this rate constituted a dis elimination as against other shippers of oil'' and he also makes much of the failure of Pres-