The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-18

tory had been guilty. Considering the fact that these shippers included the packers and elevator men of Chicago the action of the grand jury in calling upon President Moffett to furnish evil dence of their wrong-d0ing may be in- terpreted as a demand for an elabora- tion of the obvious; but the fact that rate book containing these freight rates for other shippers was offered in evidence during the trial and ruled out by Judge Landis was kept out of sight. President 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 of ficial investigations by the Interstate Commerce Commission and other de- partments of the government.
 We come back. therefore, to the con- clusion of the whole matter, which is that the Standard oil Company of In- diana was fined an amount equal to seven or eight times the value of it's entire property, because its traffic de- pertinent did not verify the statement of the Alton rate clerk, that the cent commodity rate on oil had been prop erly filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. There is no evidence, and none was introduced at the trial, that any shipper of oil from Chicago terri tory had been interfered with by the IS cent rate nor that the failure of the Alton to file it's cent rate had result ed in any discrimination against any independent shipper-we must take this on the word of the Commissioner of Corporations and of Judge Landis. Neither Is it denied even by MT. Smith that the independent" shipper of oil, whom he pictures as being driven out of business by this discrimination of the Alton. could have shipped all the oil he desired to ship from Whiting via Dolton over the lines of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois to East St. Louis. In short. President Mohett's defense 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 fa- nous Rice of Marietta. passing down to that apostle of popular liberties. Henry Demarest Lloyd. with his Wealth Against the Commonwealth, descending by easy stages to Miss Tarbell's offen- sive personalities. we finally reach the neither depths of unfair and baseless misrepresentation in the report of the Commissioner of Corporations. The Standard mas been charged with every form of commercial piracy and with most of the crimes on the corporation calendar. After long years of strenu- ous attack under the leadership of the President of the United States the cor poration is at last dragged to the bar of Justice to answer for it's misdoings The whole strength of the government is directed against it. and at last, we are told, the Standard oil Company Is to pay the penalty of its crimes, and it is finally convicted of having failed to verify the statement of rate clerk and is forthVith fined a prodiglous sum measured by the car. Under the old criminal law. the theft of property worth more than a shilling was pun ishable by death. Under the interpre- tation of the Interstate Commerce law by Theodore Roosevelt and Judge Ken esaw Landis. a technical error of a traffic official is made the excuse for the conhscation of a vast amount of property.