Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-01-30
Commissioner Smith VS.. The Standard Oh Co.
From the RailsOay Woyld, January 8, 1905.

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 fines Of the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois, which receives it's Whit
ing freight from th1 Eet Line at Dolto~.
The former practice, now disco ltinued In
filing tariffs was to make them read from a
point Oh the the line of the filing road, and it
was also general to state on the same sheet,
that the tariff would apply to other points,
Q. e., Whiting. The Chicago and Eastern
Illinois followed this practice in filing its rate
from Dolton, and making note on the sheet
that is applied to Whiting. This was in 1896
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 rate reading from
Whiting. Commissioner Smith contends that
"concealment is the only motive for such a
circuitous arrangement" 1. O., that this
method of filing the rate was intended to
mislead intending competitors Of the Stand
ard Oil Company. Suppose such "a prospec-
Commerce Commission for the rate from
Chicago to East St Louis over the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois, he would have been in
formed that the only rate filed with the
commission by this company was 6A cents
from Doton, and he would have been further
ready, that this rate applied throughout Chi
cago 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 indus
trial towns in the neighborhood 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 rate Of 6 Il cents. Where then Is the
conceament which the Commissioner of Cor
poratioGs makes so much Of? Any rate
from BOLTON on the Eastern Illinois or Chap
pell on the Alton, or Harvey on the Illinois
applies throughout Chicago territory to ship
ments from Whiting, as to shipments from
any other point in the district. So far from
the Eastern Illinois filing it's rate from Dol
ton in order to deceive the shipper, 1t is the
Commissioner of Corporations who either be-
trays his gross ignorance Of transportation
customs in Chicago territory or relies on the
public ignorance of these customs to deceive
the public too apt to accept unquestioningly
every statement made by a Government
official as necessarily true, although, as in
the present instance, careful examination
shows these statements to be false
The final point made by President Mofett
that other commodities of character similar
to oil were carried at much lower rates than
IS cents, the Commissioner of Corporations
discusses only with tho remark that "the
'reasonableness of this rate Is not in ques-
ton. The question is whether this rate con-
stituted a 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 large shippers in the terri