Show I VICTIMS UN ON THE WITNESS WETNESS STAND Sensational Testimony as to How Ilow the Standard Oil Corn Com Comi i pany Does Business COMPETITION KILLED OFF EV EVERY RY MEANS USED FAIR OR FOUL T Cleveland May DA total of nineteen were c called lIed by Interstate Corn Com Commissioners Prouty and Clam Clem Cleme e eats In the Standard standrd Oil all Inquiry There bere to today today day Commissioners counsel and every everybody everybody body else connected wIth the investigation tion put in a hard Bard day and the work werk ot of i ithe the two to se sessions iona 1 was prolific of Ual results Testimony bordering on the sensational l was obtained from several witnesses That of George L Lane of Mansfield 0 a former of the Standard all was regarded as particularly According to his evidence Lane was for fourteen months In DOl and 1302 employed ed by the Stand Standard Standard ard on Oil com company pan for the particular pur purpose purpose pose of driving all of the independent oil peddlers In a dozen or more of the principal pal cities and towns of northern Ohio out of business He said be was employed by C M Lynns of the Cleveland office of the Standard on company to go to er ertain tain tam designated places and use every means mean fair or foul to fore force the Inde Independents to Quit He de the ineth ode pursued in detaiL Specific Instructions My instructions he said were to kill them and I was told that if I could not do the job somebody else would be bent besent sent nt to take m my place I worked in Young Youngstown ton and surrounding small towns Canton Girard Warren Ravenna Massi lion Mansfield Oberlin and other places In all of the towns with the exception of Youngstown the lode pendent peddlers were forced to abandon their business s In Youngstown a man named William H Vahey was encountered encountered and despite everything we e could do he be held beld his trade We Ve gave oil away by the barrel and tank load but it did no good Va ys customers threw It away Miss Elizabeth Protzman a and bookkeeper In the Dayton Dyton a 0 office of the Standard Oil company tea tes testified titled that concerning the oil shipments of rivals was brought into the by and aDd that she made careful record of It and aDd gave ue It to her superior Owns a Telegraph Line John general superintendent of the Lima division of the Buckeye Pipe PipeLine PipeLine Line company a Standard concern was 6 asked p bout about the Standards telegraph system especially that part connected with the pipe line company ly The Inquiries succeeded In establishing the gen general ral fact that the Stan Standard rd has bas an Im ha mense menee telegraph system of Its own extend extendIng lug Ing to near nearly every p part rt of the country and that in carryIng on its great volume of trade It does not often require the WM use of the regular lines of the big telegraph companies compani The company has bas Its own on wires leased or otherwise operators regulations blanks and other eta sta stationery and sometimes sends messages for persons not connected with the corn pan pany The witness s denied that the corn com company pany exchanged business with the West rest era em Union Telegraph company at points bere one had an office and the other did not Railway Discrimination D E Byles secretary and treasurer of the Independent Refining Renning company ilm of on Oil City Pa offered testimony concerning the railroad rate on against his company ny sp by byte ute te Lake Shore and Pennsylvania roads which had bad practically driven his corn com company pany lany out of the entire New England field and that in order to hurt burt their business in Indiana the Standard agents circulated reports to the effect that the Oil City company was s in reality a Standard on Oil concern Frank J of Bellevue 0 told how his Independent oil business was all allbut but ruined by the methods of the Stand Standard Standard ard W T J Cram of Marietta 0 testified that the Standard for years erS hounded bounded his companY and the tRe company was finally compelled to sell 11 Its property at a low Jow figure W E Wall president of the Fred T Clarke company oil dealers of pointed out on rate sheets Irregularities in rates to different points in the coun country country try Merchant Threatened E X M Gibbs II a merchant of TIpton 0 said ald he be us s compelled to handle bandle the Stand Standards oil because the Standards agents threatened ed to start soother another store close by and sell sen every article he sold in competition Charles A Ricks of Cleveland employed In the Cleveland office of the StAndard Oil company from 1888 to 1001 his bis last position being that of assistant general ma manager denied upon close examination that a large Jarge amount of Standard Oil lit literature was prepared in his office and offered to papers throughout Ohio Special Counsel Monnett lonnett had bd been In Informed Informed formed thAt books of the Jd bad been recently burned In the works in this city cito and he be subpoenaed E W V MUter Miller and George rge Bear to testify Both do de denied nied that they had bad een or heard beard of any such occurrence and they were speedily excused Promise of Freight George 1 L Lewis a lubricAting oil sale salesman Man of told how bow ho lo lost losta t ta a contract with the Dayton Dyton Troy tree lion flue because the Standard Agents promised enough freight to more than PIll pay for the oil C B Duffy purchasing agent 0 of the Hocking Valley railroad was called to testify concerning the buying of lubricating lag ing oils Asked Aked if he be had not said r re recently that his road would lose Jose from flie Old to to a year Oear in e If IC he bou bought t lubricating oils from any other company o than the Standard or front the theGa Ga Galena na he be replied that he be m might ht have made a remark but he had bad no DO peel recollection of it He said that be had no Instructions from his su superiors to buy these oils from froin the Standard or Ga Galena lena companies |