The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-25
Southern Railway Official Speaks of OII Shipments Over
 His Line of Road
GREAT BL|NO- BILLING
 SCHEME IS UNFOLDED
MT. Cup Testifies as to the Particu- lar Rate Sheets Sent to Stand ard Oil Office and the
 Manner of Using.

Washington, February 24.-After an ad
 journment of three weeks, during which
 some evidence was taken at Albany, N.
 Y, the hearing of testimony in the case
 of the government against the Standard
 Oil company for an annulment of the cor
 porate existence of the company was re-
 sumed today in the hearing room of the.
 interstate commerce commission. J. M.
 Culp, president and traffic manager of tn
 Southern railway, was called to identify
 certain tariffs already introduced dealing
 with the rates on oil east and south of
 Grand Junction, Tenn.
 Did you know" inquired MT. Kellogg.
 during these years that the oil shipped
 from Whiting, Ind, to Grand Junction
 was blind -billed-that is no rate of freight
 was named in the way bills?"
 q did not" replied Mr. Culp.
 In response to other inquiries MT. Culp
 explained that it was customary for the
 rate of freight to be stated in the way
 bills. It was also custom, he said, for
 the prepay on any shipment of freight to
 be made at the point of shipment to tho
 point of destination and for the initial line
 to distribute the proportionate amounts of the rate among the connecting lines. Tariff or No Tariff. On cross-examinaton MT. Culp and Mr. Rosenthal counsel for the Standard, be- came involved in a discussion of an ex- hibit that had been offered in evidence by the government MT. Culp had identified 1t as a division sheet, showing the
 amounts to be paid to the Southern rail-
 way on shipments of oil from Whiting to
 points in the south and southwest via Grand Junction. MT. Rosenthal insisted
 on knowing how the exhibit differed from regular tariff MT. Culp explained that it lacked simplicity, form and the names of the lines which, among other things. were elements of a tariff. He said that particular division sheets had been issued at the request of Howard Page of the Standard Oil company, so that the com pany might know what it would have to pay for shipments south and east from Grand Junction. MT. Rosenthal endeav- ored to get an admission from MT. Culp that the sheet really was a tariff and he inquired whether, in MT. Culps opinion. granting that 1t was tariff, the Southern railway had not violated the law in not filing it with the interstate commerce commission. MT. Culp insisted that it was ir no sense tariff and that any man fla miliar with rate-making and tariffs would know that it was not. In the circum- stances, therefore, it was not necessary to file it with the commission.
 J. A. Seabrooke, who was station agent for the Southern Railway and Illinois Central at Grand Junction from 1882 to 1907 said that he had received many waybills of oil shipments from Whiting. Ind, of which no rate amount of freight was stated, the bills merely showing that the freight had been prepaid. These shipments, MT. Seabrooke by direction of
 the Standard Oil company, were recon signed at Grand Junction to various points indicated in his orders He said that no other shipments of freight than oil were received at Grand Junction blind billed.
 Biggest Shipper.
 On cross examination, MT. Seabrooke said that 50 per cent of the freight at Grand Junction was oil and that the Standard oil company was by far the largest individual shipper. Until about 1907 the waybills were blind but after that time they contained the rate and | amount of freight as other bills were made out. He understood that the Stand ard made its settlements for shipments Wlln the auullOrS or the southern Rall- way.
 MT. Seabrooke testified that since the
 latter part of 1906 the system of blind billing of oil had been abandoned. Lincoln Green, freight traffic manager of the Southern Railway explained the division sheet which MT. Culp had been
 questioned about by MT. Rosenthal He
 said 1t was division sheet-not tar iff-and was based on certain Illinois Gen. tral tariffs filed with the interstate com
 merce commission. He explained that it was not necessary for the Southern Rail- way to file the tariffs as they should be filed by the initial shipping line. a MT. Culp's testimony shows in general that the Southern Railway received it's
 proportion of what is known as the
 Evansville rate and he testified to cer- tain division sheets and tariffs in force
 on the Southern Railway from March 1, 1908, to May g. 1905.
 He said the Southern had accepted shipments of oil billed as prepaid at
 Evansville for points south through Grand Junction and that the Southern had re-
 ceived it's proportion of the rates on such shipments.