Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-02-01

into Chicago They terminate at Doltop
from which point entrance is made over the
Belt Line, Whiting, where the oil freight
originates, is not on the lines of the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois. which receives its whit.
ing freight from the Belt Line at BOLTON
The former practice, now discontinued, iu
hlng tariffs was to make them read from a
point on the the line of the fling road, and Il
was also general to state on the same sheet
that the tariff would apply to other points,
e. g. Whiting. The Chicago and Eastern
Illinois followed this practice In filing its rate
from Dolton, and making a note on the sheet
that Is applied to Whiting, This was In 1S95
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 and Eastern
Illinois had not filed a rate reading from
whiting. Commissioners Smith contends that
concealment is the only motive for such
circuitous arrangement" l. e. that this
method OF filing the rate was intended to
mlslead intending competitors OF the Stand
ara OH Company Suppose such prospec-
i've oil retner had applied to the Interstate
commerce Commission for the rate from
chicago to East st, Louis over the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois, he would have been in
formed that the only rate filed with the
commission by this company was 6k cents
from BOLTON, and he would have been further
informed, If indeed he did not know this al
ready that this rate applied throughout Chi
cago 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 Indus
trial towns in the neighborhood of Chicago
he conld have his freight delivered over the
Belt Line to the Chicago and Eastern Illinois
at Bolton and transported to East St Louis
at rate of 6A cents Where then is the
concealment which the Commissioner of Cor
porations makes so much Of? Any rate
from BOLTON on the Eastern Illinois or Chan
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 Whiting as to shipments from
any other point In the district So far from
the Eastern Illinois filing its rate from Dol
ton in order to deceive the shipper It Is the
commissioner of Corporations who either be-
trays his gross ignorance Of transportation
customs in Chicago territory or relies on the
public Ignorance of these customs to deceive
the public too apt to accept unquestioningly
every statement made by Government
ofiieial as necessarily true, although as in
the present instance, careful examination
shows these statements to be false
the final point made by President Moffett
that other commodities of character similar
10 OIL were carried~at much lower rates than
~ cents, the Commissioner of Corporations
discusses only with the remark that "the
reasonableness' of this rate is not in uues-
ton The question is whether this rate con-
ssituted 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 large shippers in the terri