The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-05
METHODS USED BY
 STANDARD OIL CO. Young Women Employed to Make Demonstrations UNFAIRNESS DlSCLAIMED Witnesses for Oil Company Testify as to Manner of Handling Business
 at Many Competitive
 Points.
UNFAIRNESS DISCLAIMED

1 New York, September 4-When the hearing of the governments suits to dis solve the Standard Oil company of New Jersey was resumed today Merits Hau- sen, counsel for the defense, called to the witness stand c. T. Ceiling, second vice president of the Standard Oil com pany of Kentucky. The witness denied that the Standard oil company had placed wagons in the field under the pretense that they were independent enterprises, that the company might retain control of the local trade
 The witness said they found a number of local peddlers who claimed that they were independent and were also supplying oil superior to that offered by the Stan dard To retain it's trade, the witness explained, the company employed young women to visit houses and demonstrate that the Standard kerosene was equally as good as that of the independent com petitors.
 We demonstrated" said Mr Ceiling, that the oils were practically the same and that the payment of an increased price was entirely unnecessary
 Decatur, H., was one of the cities named by the witness where young wo men had been employed The Standard had also, according to the witness, ex perienced considerable difficulty in breaking up an opposition plan whereby the competing wagons gave short meas ure to local consumers, which the Stan l dard, by cutting the rate and coming 1 into the field with similar equipment, 1 had broken up. Testimony concerning the so-called unfair compeititnon in Ken lucky and Illinois occupied the hearing 1 during the morning session.
 Continuing his testimony, MT. Ceiling told about the oil business in Kentucky. He said that no instructions had been l given to cut into the prices of the Red c company one of the Standards principal competitors in that field. No funds had ever been placed at his disposal, said the witness, to provide for cuts in prices. MT. Ceiling denied that the price of oil had been reduced as low as cents in Atlanta in 1887 and later to cents to re- tain the business Asked about 50 and 1 75 cent rebates said to have been allowed | by the Standard Oil company to it's trade, the witness said that such dis counts were at that time general in the l oil trade, as they had been for many years, and generally allowed to jobbers in the city. The witness continued to deny that the Standard Oil company had | in any way attempted unfair competition or price discrimination in his territory, which embraced a portion of Illinois and all of Kentucky. He told of the purchase by the Standard of the Peoples Oil com pany, organized in Atlanta, Ga., as an i independent concern. He denied he had l given any instructions to incorporate the concern as an independent concern, but said the previous owner had conducted it for the Standard to determine what the good will was worth.
 Colling denied that the Record Oil company of Kentucky was owned by the Standard and said that the former concern was an active competitor. The witness asserted that the president of the Record company, Thomas Andrews, who was a member of the legislature, tried to have bill passed to regulate the Standards business in that state, but failed. Denial was made by the witness of charges of unfair competition made by witnesses examined at Wash ington. Where there had been lowering of prices, MT. Ceiling explained, such decrease had been due to the prices of crude oil going down. The witness said | the allegations of H. c. Boardman in | regard to price reductions could not be | substantiated. Boardman had been con- nected with the Standard in 1886 and 1 had later commenced an independent business in Denmark, Ga. Afterwards the Standard entered that field and dropped the price of oil from Il to g cents MT. Ceiling also declared that | another of Boardmans statements in regard to prices on a car of oil shipped to Washington, Ga., by the Red c Oil company could not be true, because the whole town could not use a car of oil in a year.
 MT. Cauley, formerly a Standard spe- cial agent in Alabama, followed Ceiling on the stand. He refused to comply with a request to produce for the inspection of the government his correspondence with Mir Colling during 1904 and 1905. MT Kellogg asked Cauley if he knew of Secretary Stein of the Standard oil company of Kentucky going to Vim cennes, Ind, and there organizing and operating the Niets company as an in- | dependent company. He replied that he knew nothing of such a company nor did he have any knowledge of any per | son employed by the Standard pretend ing to be of an independent concern with the exception of the Alabama oil com pany, a distributing company purchased by the Standard as an independent con cern. He said he did not know why this was done, nor did he know why the Dixie oil company had been operated for time independently.
 The hearing will be resumed next | Tuesday