The daily sentinel., 1909-02-23
BIG STANDARD OIL CASE
REHEARING UNDER WAY
Isnecial to The sentlnel. ]

Chicago, Feb. 23.-In the United
Stntes district court, Judge a. b. An
derson presiding, the second trial of
the rebate case against the Standard
Oil company of Indiana was com
menced today. Great popular inter-
est was manifested in the trial and
the court room was crowded. AT the
first trial before Judge Lands, the
oil trust was convicted on ,462
counts and fined S29 100000. the
largest fine ever imposed by any
court This was reversed by the
appellate court, and on January 4 last
the United States supreme court dis
missed the governments appeal for
a review. The case will now be re-
tried, and the first guns in the i'm
posing legal battle were fired shortly
after Judge Anderson called the court
to order this morning. II is not like
ly that John d. Rockefeller will be
called upon to testify at this trial.
Probably the principal witness will
be j. A. Moffatt. president of the
Standard Oil company of Indiana.
Other Standard Oil officials on whom
subpoenas have been served are: G.
w. Stahl, treasurer; John C. Nc
Donald, auditor; Edgar Bogardus,
traffic manager.
Subpoenas have been served also
expert rate clerks for the Interstate
commerce commission; Secretary
Fitzpatrick, of the railroad and ware
house commission; f. S. Hollands,
rate clerk for the Chicago and Alton
railroad, and j. S. Howard, former
auditor of the Chicago and Alton
road.
Under the decision handed down
last month by the supreme court, the
N T,,Ie
Lands can never be collected, be-
cause Judge Grosscup declared 1t ex
cessive, and his decision is allowed
to stand
John d. Rockefeller spoke whereof
he knew when he declared the morn
ing after Judge Lands imposed SEN
tence that Judge Lands will be a
long time dead before that fine is
paid" 1t was the desire to have the
fine upheld that prompted the gov
ernment to fight so hard for a su
preme court review.
The case is the most famous of all
the recent antitrust legislation. 1t
brought John ID. Rockefeller to the
witness stand in Chicago after week
spent in lodging a federal process
server After the United States Cir
cult Court of Appeals had set aside
the fine President Roosevelt pro-
nounced the reversal "a miscarriage
of Justice and was scornfully answ-
cred by Judge Kohlsaat. The fine
was the largest ever imposed in a
court of justice.
The Indictment on which the con-
viction of the Standard Oil company
of Indiana was obtained was one of
ten true bills returned by the federal
grand jury on August %, 1906.
There were 800 counts in this in
dictment, 441 of which subsequently
were stricken from the record by
Judge Landis These counts con-
cerned shipments of oil from the com
pany's refinery at Whiting, Ind, to
East st. Louis and st. Louis at rates
which. it was shown, were lower than
the published tariffs. Tho period
covered by the indictment was from
September 1903. to March. 1905.
The defense maintained that the
legal interstate rate was six cents
while ii was shown that the legal
rate per hundred pounds to East st.
Louis was eighteen cents. The trial
lasted six weeks, three tons of docu-
mentary evidence was submitted to
the jury, including more than 700
way bills, shipping orders, receipts
and records. The jury was sworn in
March 5, 1907, and on April 13, after
being out two hours and ten minutes,
the jury returned a verdict of guilty
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