The Huttig news., 1908-02-01

large shippers in the territory had been guilty Considering the fact that these shippers in- cluded the packers and elevator men of Chi cago the action of the grand jury in calling upon President Moffett to furnish evidence of their wrong-doing may be interpreted as de- mand for an elaboration of the obvious; but the fact that rate-book containing these freight fates for other shippers was offered in evidence during the trial and ruled out by Judge Landis, was kept out of sight. Presi- dent Moffett would not, of course, accept the invitation of the grand jury although he might have been pardoned if he had referred them to various official investigations by the Inter- state Commerce Commission and other de- partments of the Government.
 We come back, therefore, to the conclusion of the whole matter, which is that the Stand ard Oil Company of Indiana was fined an amount equal to seven or eight times the val ue of it's entire property. because its traffic -depaEtnaant-did not -EArifaz tha- - the Alton rate clerk that the sixcent commod- ity rate on oil had been properly filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. There is no evidence and none was introduced at the trial, that any shipper of oil from Chicago territory had been interfered with by the 18-cent rate that the failure of the Alton to file its six cent rate had resulted in any discrimination against any independent shpper,-we must
 
 of Corporations and of Judge Landis. Neither is it denied even by MT. Smith that the 'inde- pendent' shipper of oil whom he pictures as being driven out of business by this dscrim- ination of the Alton, could have shipped all the oil he desired to ship from Whiting via Dolton over the lines of the Chicago & East ern Illinois to East St. Louis. In short, Presi- dent Moffetts defence is still good, and we predict will be so declared by the higher court
 The Standard Oil Company has been charged with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors. Beginning with the famous Rice of Marietta, passing down to that apostle of popular liber- ties, Henry Demarest Lloyd with his Wealth Against the Commonwealth, descending by easy stages to Miss Tarbelrs offensive person. alities we finally reach the neither depths of unfair and baseless misrepresentation in the report of the Commissioner of Corporations The Standard has been charged with every form of commercial piracy and with most of the crimes on the corporation calendar. After long years of strenuous attack under the leadership of the President of the United States, the corporation is at last dragged to the bar of justice to answer for it's misdoings The whole strength of the Government is di- rected against it, and at last we are told, the Standard Oil Company is to pay the penalty of it's crimes, and it is finally convicted of hay ing failed to verify the statement of rate clerk and is forthwith fined prodigious sum, measured by the car. Under the old criminal law, the theft of property worth more than a shilling was punishable by death. Under the interpretation of the Interstate Commerce law by Theodore Roosevelt and Judge Kenesaw Landis, technical error of traffic official is made the excuse for the confiscation of vast amount of property.