The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-24
THE STANDARD OIL FINE.

THE STANDARD OIL FINE.
 The Journal Courier has reason to take satisfaction out of the finding of the United States court of appeals, which declares invalid the fine im- posed by Judge Landis of the United States district court upon he Standard oil company amounting to S29,000,00O for an alleged violation of the Elkins law, in the matter of frelgnt rates. At the time the fine was imposed we as- serted that there was not the slightest doubt of reversal of the verdict by the higher court, that to fine cor poration without hearing twenty eight more millions than the offending corporation possessed was like con demning a man with one neck to have 1t broken twenty-nine times by direc- ton of the law.
 The decision rendered by Judge Landis was gallery decision and can without difficulty be traced to that spirit of corporation batting, which was for a long period popular and in which many distinguished leaders os public opinion indulged without thought of the ultimate consequences. President Roosevelt must permit him self to be numbered among them, for 1t was he who declared that those newspapers. which questi oned the ln- telligence or legality of the Lands decision, could be counted among the subsidized press. A more ungenerous criticism was never passed by that dis tingushed citizen, and now that the court, next lower in dignity to the United States supreme court has de- clared even more emphatcally that those newspapers were right in their judgment, 1t is in order for him to off, fer an apology inspired ay love of the square deal.
 Not one of the newspapers which were included ip the list Of dissenters from the Landis opinion Is a subsidz- ed newspaper from any conceivable point of view. Not one of them would have word of criticism to pass if, in fair and legal prosecution of the Standard oil company, lt was made to pay penalty for its misdeeds. As a matter of fact, the newspapers, to which President Roosevelt referred as specifically as he could in his message to congress, belong to that large and influential class, which refuses to judge of corporations from the point of view of their self estimates. They recognize how fashionable 1t has been to select accumulated wealth in all of its forms for special condemnation, and to refer to its possessors as male- factors and undesirable citizens, but they have refused to engage in the game though at all times reserving to themselves the more dignified right to condemn what Is palpably wrong, whether indulged in by powerful corporation, an influential citizen or a poor devil of a beggar.
 AS The Journal Courier said at the time, it would be found that the ser iousness of the suit and it's outcome at the hands of Judge Lands would be found to consist in the reversal of the finding by tho higher court; that that necessary conclusion on the part of the court would give 1emagogues and agitators their mighty chance 10 beat the air and crysout that tho halls of justice had fallen under the sway of the rich. Here is Attorney General Bonaparte already simpering about his inability to appeal the case on the Landis finding to the supreme court. He says: q think this gives s.n unrea- sonable and unfair advantage to the wealthy defendants in such cases" A moro utterly reckless statement could not have been made by an officer of the government ''off the real," for 1t Is susceptible at once to evnry sort of misconstruction in the mouths of men only too ready to miscoastrue 1t for political purposes. Now that the Standard oil company is assured the fair trial every corporation and indi- vidual in the land is entitled to and to which no honest man should object 1t would be further attractive to learn that Judge Landis had been relieved of his judicial duties and Attorney General Bonaparte of his.
 Nothing in the long run is made If unfair treatment whether the offend- ing party is corporation or an in- dividual. Now that the road to a clear understanding of just what the