Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1908-02-27
It. northern
loses REBATE SUIT
SUPREME COURT RULES THAT
HEPBURN LAW DOES NOT
REPEAL ElKlNS ACT.
The Governments Campaign Against
Special Privileges Thus Wins an
Important Victory. A Blow to
Standard Oil.

Washington, Feb. 25.-The question
whether the railroad rate law known
as the Hepburn law repeals section
of the Elkins law, prohibiting rebates
by railroads, was involved in the case
of the Great Northern Railway vs..
the United States, which was decided
Dy the supreme court of the United
States against the railroad company
and against the contention of such
appeal.
The case was instituted in the Uni
ted States district court for the dis
trlct OF Minnesota, which court fined
the railroad $1,000 each for fifteen
violations of the first section of the
Elkins law.
The decision upholds the fine of
$4,000 against the Great Northern
road for granting rebates to the w.
d. Devereux company of Minneapo-
lis, and in effect sustains the STAN
dard Oil's 500, 600, 900 fine, the Bur-
lington roads $4,000 fine in the
packing house cases, and strengthens
the governments contentious in
large number of other cases, includ-
ing the thousand or more counts
against the Standard Oil, making it
liable to fines aggregating $50, 900, 900.
The company admitted the conces-
sions and fought the prosecution on
the ground that by amending the
Elkins act SO as to provide for pun
ishment by imprisonment rather than
by fines the Hepburn law had so mod
flied the original as to accomplish it's
repeal and render punishment under
it impracticable.
The Standard Oil company and
railroads and shippers convicted of
granting and accepting. rebates made
the plea that they were immune from
punishment for offenses committed
previous to the enactment of the Hep
burn law by the provisions of section
10 of the Hepburn law which reads as
follows:
THAT all laws and parts of laws in
c;nflict with the provisions of this act
are hereby repealed, but the amend
nents herein provided for shall not
affect cases now pending in courts of
t>e United States, but such cases
s-lall be prosecuted to conclusion in
the manner heretofore provided h1r
llw."
The cases against the Great North
,rn and other railroads and the STAN
ard Oil company and other shippers
we're not pending in the courts at the
line the Hepburn act went into effect.
rne indictments were found and con-
7ictions obtained afterwards. In the
case of the Great Northern the indict-
n ol,ts were not returned until Octo-
)-r, 1906, but the act went into effect
Aug. 20, 1906.
That the de .ision is of far reaching
Importance is made apparent by the
ct that the point raised by the
.4reat Northern was identically the
sane as that made by the Standard
i'll company in its appeal from the
7ar.ict which led to the fine imposed
! by Judge Landis of the federal dis
+ let court in Chicago.
There were eleven other railroads
aid shippers indicted at the same
me as the Great Northern. They
lead guilty and were fined, all of
51em claiming immunity from pun
i,nment of offences committed previ-
us to enactment of Hepburn law.
The decision is far reaching and
| ,reatly strengthens the hands of the
government.