The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-01-31
Commissioner Smith VS.. The Standard Oil Co.
Et0M tile RalIzvay U01Za, -LaNua1y ), 1905.

Chicago. They terminate at BOLTON, from which
point entrance is made over the Belt Line.
Whiting, where the oil freight originates, is not
on the lines Of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois,
which receives its Whiting freight from the
Belt Line at BOLTON. The former practice, now
discontinued, in fling tariffs was to make
them read from a point on the line of the fill
ing road, and it was also general to state on
the same sheet, that the tariff would apply to
other points, e. G, Whiting. The Chicago Il
Eastern Illinois followed this practice in filing
its rate from BOLTON, and making a note on
the sheet that is applied to Whiting. This was
in 1895 when this method Of filing tariffs was
in common use.
Now let us see in what way the intending
shipper Of oil could be miSled and deceived by
the fact that the Chicago & Eastern Illinois
had not filed a rate reading from Whiting.
Commissioner Smith contends that conceal
ment is the only motive for such a circuitous
arrangement i. e., that this method Of filing
the rate was intended to mislead intending
competitors of the Standard Oil Company.
Suppose such a prospective oil refiner had ap-
piled to the Interstate Commerce Commission
for the rate from Chicago to East st. Louis
over the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, he would
have been informed that the only rate filed
with the commission by this company was 6A
cents from BOLTON. and he would have been
further informed, il indeed he did not know
this already. that this rate applied throughout
Chicago territory. So that whether he wished
to locate his plant at Whiting, or anywhere
else about Chicago, under an arrangement of
long standing, and which applies to all the in
dustrial towns In the neighborhood of Chica-
go, he could have his freight delivered over
the Belt Line to the Chicago & Eastern Illi-
~&s- ~ ~ -y A T. MI CA
Louis at a rate of ca cents. Where then is
the concealment which the Commissioner of
Corporations makes SO much of? Any rate
from BOLTON on the Eastern Illinois or Chap
pell on the Alton, or Harvey on the Illinois
Central, or Blue Island on the Rock Island,
applies throughout Chicago territory to ship
ments from any other point in the district.
So far from the Eastern Illinois filing it's rate
from bolton In order to deceive the shipper,
1t IS the Commissioner of Corporations who
either betrays his gross ignorance Of transpor-
tation customs In Chicago territory or relies
on the public ignorance of these customs to
deceive the public too apt to accept unques-
tioningly every statement made by a Govern
ment official as necessarily true, although, as
in the present instance, a careful examination
shows these statements to be false.
The final point made by President Mofett
that other commodities of a character similar
to oil We're carried at much lower rates than
IS cents, the Commissioner of Corporations
discusses only with the remark that "the
'reasonableness of this rate is not in question.
The question is whether this rate constituted
a discrimination as against other shippers Of
OIL and he also makes much of the failure Of
President Moffett to produce before the grand
jury evidence Of the ALLEGED illegal acts of
which the Standard Oil official said that other