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Show - . ' v . . ' ' ' - ' . : .. " : ' - "' r c rj 'jery of ; People by Ro cl:efell 2r in Cc!-lusion Cc!-lusion With RcilrorJs S!iov;n in.ni-p.art in.ni-p.art by GcrfieW, Uliich Prcsi":nt Sends to Congress. 7HIi AtcvgI. tlon, the passage of some such law as that already passed by the House, put tin; alcohol used In the art and man ufactures on the free list and of keeping keep-ing the fee to oil and coal lands of the Indian Territory tribes or on the public domain In the Government the . lands to be leased only on such terms and for Kuoh periods as will enable the Gov-ernnwiit Gov-ernnwiit to entirely control them. i . ."WASHnrOTON, May 4. The Sen-' Sen-' ate amendment making; pipe line for the transportation of oil common carrier car-rier within the meaning of the interstate inter-state commerce act, wm adopted unanimously. I'-rWASHINGTON. May 4. President "" Roosevelt today transmitted to Congress Con-gress the report of James R. Garfield, ' Commissioner of Corporations, giving the rfesults of his investigation of the subject of transportation and freight ratf Jft-Tounectlon with the oil lndus- ; tryTf "" ' In Vis message the President ex-preesAl ex-preesAl the view that the report is of capital Importance because of the effort ef-fort now being made to secure such enlargement en-largement of the powers of the Interstate. Inter-state. Commerce Commission 4 as will confer upon the commission power in some measure adequaet1 to meet ' the clearly demonstrated needs of the situation. sit-uation. The facts set forth in the report, re-port, he declares, are for the most part not disputed. tecret Kates to Standard. ' That the' Standard Oil company has .benefited enormously up almost to the present moment by secret rates, many of which were clearly unlawful, the President says the report clearly shotts, .the benefit thereby secured amounting 40 at least three-quarters of a million va year. On this subject he says: , This three-quarters of a million represents rep-resents the profit that the Standard Oil company obtains at the expense of the railroads; but of course the ultimate ulti-mate result Is that it obtains a much larger profit at the expense of the public . ---Corrected When Exposed.v '. "A very striking result of the lnves- tlf-atlon has been that shortly after the 1 discovery of these secret rates by the Commissioner of Corporations the major ma-jor portion of . them were promptly corrected cor-rected by the railroads,' so that most of them have now been . done away with. This Immediate correction, partial par-tial or complete, of the evil of the secret se-cret rates, is of course on the one hand an acknowledgment that . they were wrong and yet were persevered In until -vx posed: and on the other hand, a proof of the efficiency of the work that has been done by the bureau of corporations." corpor-ations." , ( Prosecutions to Follow. ' The statement is added that the Department De-partment of Justice will take up the question of Instituting prosecutions in at least certain of the cases, and the hope Is expressed that Congress will enact into law the bill f Senator Knox to correct the Interpretation of the immunity im-munity provision rendered In Judge Humphrey's decision. .Continuing, the President says: Advantage Over Rivals. "Butt in addition to these secret rates the 6andard Oil profits Immensely by opf" rates, which are so arranged as to glv lit an overwhelming advantage over its Independent competitors. This tara "rharacteristlc' example of the nu-meroSif nu-meroSif evils which are Inevitable under un-der a sjstem In which the big shipper and the railroad are left free to crush out all Individual Initiative and all power of independent action because of the absence of adequate and thoroughgoing thorough-going Governmental control. Exactly similar conditions obtain In a large part of the West and Southwest.' ' Profits of "The System." It Is not possible, be says, to put Into figures the exact amount by which the Standard profits through the gross favoritism fa-voritism shown It by the railroads In I connection with the open rates. . The profit of course comes not mere-' ly by the saving in the rate Itself as compared with Its competitors, but by the higher prices it Is able to charge and by the complete control of. the market which It secures, thereby getting get-ting the profit on the whole consumption." consump-tion." : How the Law la Evaded. The President calls attention to that feature of the report regarding the manner In which the law is evaded by. treating as State commerce what in reality Is merely a part of Interstate commerce. He says It Is clearly shown "that this device Is employed on the New York Central railroad, as well as on marry other railroads, In such fash-l'f fash-l'f 4 as to amount to thwarting the pur-) pur-) J'e of the law. although the forms of tira law may be complied with." Sugar Trust Also in Snare. It is unfortunately not true, he says, that the Standard Oil company, is the only corporation which has benefited and Is benefiting in wholly Improper ' fashion by an elaborate series of rate difJiim!na.tIons. The sugar trust, he p 'fs. according to the results of the stigatlon now In progress, rarely if f, pays the lawful rate for transition. trans-ition. roads Are Tied Up. declares that in the effort to pre-the pre-the railroads from uniting for Improper Im-proper purposes, "we have very un- wisely prohibited them from uniting for proper purposes; that is, for purposes pur-poses of protecting themselves and the general public as against the power Of ' the great corporations." ir-nedles Suggested. |