Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-03-12
STANDARD OIL
COMPANY
NOT GUILTY
Judge Anderson, in Retrial of $4,000
600 Action, Instructs Jury to Re-
turn Verdict of Acquittal.
NO LEGAL PUBLISHED RATE.
Under These Conditions, Big Combine
Cannot Be Prosecuted for Max
ing Low Charges.
TWO COMPLAINTS NOW REMAIN.

CHICAGO. ILL.,. March 1O-Judge An
derson today decided to instruct the jury
in the Standard Oil case to find the COM
pany not guilty.
The decision of the court was an
nounced at the close of a long argument
by District Attorney Wilkerson, and the
jury was Immediately summoned and in
structed to return verdict of not guilty.
This means that all but two of the
pending indictments against the Stand
ard Oil company of Indiana are void
and will be abandoned by the govern
ment. The two cases not affected by to-
days decision are cases involving ship
ment of 1915 carloads of oil from Whit
ing, Ind, to Evansville Ind, via Dalton
Junction over the Chicago & Eastern
Illinois railroad.
The company was charged with ac-
cepting rebates from the Chicago & AL
ton Hallway company and was found
guilty after the first trial before Judge
Lands who imposed the famous fine of
500 100000. This decision was reversed
and the case was remanded back to the
lower court for a new trial by the United
States circuit court of appeals. Judge
Anderson of Indiana was called in to
try the case.
The retrial opened this morning upon
a crucial stage of its history.
In the face of adverse rulings by
Judge Anderson, the government attor-
neyS over night decided to abandon the
idea of additions to the bill of particulars
covering the defects pointed out by the
court, and began their arguments in the
hope of getting Judge Anderson to re-
verse his decisions.
Were Prepared for Fight.
The Standard Oil lawyers expressed
hot no hn
brought to a close soon, but the federal
attorneys said they were prepared to
fight until the case was actually thrown
out of court
The first line of argument was against
the courts indicated decision that the
1S-cent rate under which the Indictment
was drawn could not be established by
means of the Illinois classification. Ac-
cording to the governments point of view
the published rate on oil from Whiting,
Ind. to East st. Louis was IS cents.
This was established by means of tariff
"a in its application to the Illinois CLASH
fication issued in 1899.
No Legal Published Rate.
In 1900 a new Illinois classification
was issued and the Interpretation of the
courts opinion is that this invalidated
published rate, the defense claims.
the oil company cannot be prosecuted
for making shipments at a 6-cent rate.
Ends Famous Action.
The prosecution, which today ended in
failure. after having once been tried by
Judge X. NJ. Lands. whose decision was
reversed by the court of appeals and the
case remanded to the district court for a
second trial. had its beginning August
27. 1906.
On that date ten indictments were re-
turned by federal grand jury charging
the Standard Oil company of Indiana
with accepting concessions from rail
ways in shipments of oil from Whiting,
Ind. Demurrers to two of these, invOlv-
ing shipments over the Chicago & East
ern Illinois railroad and connecting roads
to Grand Junction, Tenn, were sustained
and the indictments were quashed short
ly after they had been returned. The
eight remaining bills were demurred to,
but the demurrers were Overruled.
Two of the eight indictments involved
shipments over the Chicago q Alton rail
road from Whiting, Ind, to East st.
Louis, ILL.,, and st. Louis, one contain
ing 1903 counts and the other 1874 counts.
1t was the 1908 counts indictment on
which the oil company prosecution was
based. With 146 counts allowed to
stand, the case went to trial first before
Judge Lands, March 4, 1907. The trial
consumed six weeks, and resulted in u
verdict of guilty April Is, 1907.
Imposed Enormous Fine
Arguments for a new trial was heard
in May and a motion for a new trial was
denied. On August g. 1907, Judge Lam
dis imposed his famous fine of $29, 240,-
600.
Judge Anderson in a fifteen-minute
discussion of the case to the jury ex-
planned his position and announced that
if the case was to go to the jury and
a verdict of guilty was returned he could
do nothing but set aside the verdict.
There is absolutely nothing on which
a conviction in this case could stand
before any court in this country" the
court said in concluding his charge to
the jurors: The government has failed
to prove it's contention that the 1S-cent
rate was the lawful rate between Whit
ing and East st. Louis and that the de-
PENDANT had willfully accepted a lower
rate, and there is therefore nothing to
do but for the jury to bring i'll YER
tot Of oIJi1ty- -