Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1908-02-08
Commissioner Smith VS.. The Standard Oil Go.
From tile Rafza0ay Ito,za, January 3, 1905

Chicago. They terminate at BOLTON, from which
point entrance is made over the Belt Line.
Whiting, where the oil freight originates, is not
the lines of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.
which receives it's Whiting freight from the
Belt Line at Bolton. The former practice, now
discontinued, in filing tariffs was to make
them read from a point or the line of the fl
ing road, and it was also general to state
the same sheet, that the tariff would apply to
other points, e. g.. Whiting. The Chicago &
Eastern Illinois followed this practice in filing
its rate from BOLTON, and making note
the sheet that is applied to Whiting. This was
in 1895 when this method of fling 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 circuitous
arrangement i. e., that this method of filing
the rate was intended to mislead intending
competitors of the Standard Oil Company
Suppose such prospective oil refiner had ap
piled to the Interstate Commerce Commission
for the rate from Chicago to East st. Louis
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, if 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, 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-
nois at BOLTON and transported to East ST.
Louis at a rate of Ga cents. Where then is
the concealment which the Commissioner of
Corporations makes much of? Any rate
from BOLTON On the Eastern Illinois or Chap
pell on the Alton, Harvey on the Illinois
Central Blue Island the Rock Island,
applies throughout Chicago territory to ship
ments from any other point in the district.
So far from the Eastern Illinois filing its rate
from BOLTON in order to deceive the shipper,
it is the Commissioner of Corporations who
either betrays his gross ignorance of transpor-
tation customs in Chicago territory relies
the public ignorance of these customs to
deceive the public too apt to accept unques
tioningly every statement made by Govern
in the present instance, a careful examination
shows these statements to be false.
The final point made by President Moffeti
that other commodities of a character similar
to oil were 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
discrimination against other shippers OF
OIL and he also makes much of the failure OF
President Nioffett to produce before the grand
jury evidence of the alleged illegal acts OF
which the Standard Oil official said that other