Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 31, 1908)
,-nn f-yrvt" . WT-at'"rfwi'' "r MPim1 v '' n(y SPW(fPWB Tfie Commoner. 6 . VOLUME 8, NUMBER W ryitymv? itptnny.7 The Coniitidner. ISSUED WEEKLY. OltAIlMtS W. UltVAN, lUtiJIAlll) L. MOTCAM'IC, ' 1'ulilJnlior. , Mdltor. 02i-nao Hoti(li Twolflli Strcot, v JFntcrcd nt tlio I'oMonico nt Lincoln, Noli., ns stcoml-clnw mntto Olio Vonr S1.0O Xhrco MoiiUih - - (Six Motillm SO SIiikIo Copy - - Jn ClubH of I'lyo or more?. Snmilo Copies Free. Per Year 78 Vorolirn I'osJuko 52 Ccnta Extra. r i This ls'a robuko as well to every criminal -. .- ' Judge in the United States. What judge ever sentences the convicted defendant without tak ing into account his associates, his record, ' wlinthnr ho is an old offender and the nature of his offense? How can a, judge conscientiously pronounce sentence without a "personal belief that tho party deserves punishment?" If by a change of incorporation from Ohio to New Jersey, or Illinois to Indiana, the Stand ard Oil company can appear "as a virgin offend or' why should not any habitual burgler escape a sentence as an old offender merely by chang ing his namo or taking an aliis? - 25o . . Go SUIISGHII'TIONS can bo nont direct to Tho Com- I mnner. Tliov nn.n nlnn hn nonf fhrnutrh nowsnanerfl I- wlilch havo ad'Vortlocd a clubbing rato, or through local agents, whoro sub-agents nave been appoint ed. All romittancos should bo sent by postomco money order, express order, or by bank draft on Now York or Chicago. Do not send Individual checks, Btamps or monoy. DISCONTINUANCES Tt Is found that a largo majority of our subscribers prefer not to havo their subscriptions Interrupted and their flies brokon In case they fall to remit beforo expiration. It Is therefore assumed that continuance is desired f unless subscribers ordor discontinuance, either whoh subscribing or at any tlmo during tho year. Presentation Copies: Many persons subscrlbo for frlonds, lntondlng that tho papor shall stop at tho end of tho year. If Instructions are given to tnat effect they will rccelvo attention at tho proper time. RENEWALS Tho dato on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription is paid. Thus January ,31, 08, means that payment has been re 'CGlvod to and including tho last Issue of January, 1008, Two wcoks are required aftor monoy has boon recoived boforo tho dato on wrapper can bo changed. fill aim nm nm innmncta C3nl-nrrllinrn rnnuostlntJ f a chango of addrosa must glvo OLD as well as NEW address. i ADVERTISING Rates furnished upon applica tion. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb. The Commoner will te sent i , . I trom now until Election Day for Twenty-five. Cents. company of John S. Miller, John Barton Payne, leading attorneys of the Standard Oil company, and W. W. Gurley, attorney for the Chicago Traction companies, United States Circuit Judge , Peter S. Grosscup arrived here today and is. stop ping at the Waldorf. The object of this remarkable trip of Judge Grosscup, begun a few hours aftor he had hand ed down tho decision overthrowing the V29, 240,000 flnq imposed on the Standard Oil com pany by Judge Landis, is not disclosed by any of the members of tho party. Judge Grosscup tonight was given an op portunity of explaining why he journeyed east with Some of the biggest attorneys of the Stand ard Oil so soon after he had rendered a decision Baving millions to the Rockefeller corporation, but he declined to give any explanation. In response to a request for an interview at the Waldorf, Judge Grosscup sent word that ho could not be seen. He was then sent a copy of the statement of President Roosevelt criticis ing his remarkable decision. In reply to this ho dictated a statement which is little less than a veiled defiance of the chief executive. Tho statement is as follows: "There is no more reason for my taking notice of any comment Mr. Roosevelt has made than if it were made by a private citizen. True, he Ib president, but that office and the office filled by a judge of the court of appeals are entirely separate and independent branches of the gov ernment." Further than this Judge Grosscup declined to discuss the cause of hiB journey east. NOT LIKE OTHER CRIMINALS The following is taken from a New York World editorial: For tho size of the fine the appellate opin ion censures Judge Landis harshly, it says that he had no right to consider the iniquities of the parent Standard Oil company and to sav that it "was not a virgin offender;" that ho !a? I f1?!11 t0 nct on "tlio' judged 'personal be lief that the party marked by-himMfor punish ment deserves punishments 'N ar .ii .,, . HISTORY OF THE CASE The history of the Standard Oil case is told by tho Chicago Record-Herald in this way: The prosecution of the Standard Oil com pany of Indiana on the charge of accepting re bates from ,tho Chicago and Alton railroad has been in the courts for almost two years. The indictment on which the conviction was secured was one of ten true bills returned by the fed eral grand jury, August 29, 1906. A violation of the Elkins law was the specific charge set up by the government. There were in this indictment 1,903 counts, of which 441 subsequently were stricken out by Judge Landis. Shipments of oil from the company's refinery at Whiting, Ind., to East St. Louis at rates lower than those published in the Alton's tariff sheets formed the concessions about which the government complained. Those shipments and the acceptance by the oil company of the alleged rebates covered a period of eighteen months from September, 1903, to March, 1905. While the legal rate of shipment from Whiting to East St. Louis was eighteen cents for each 100 pounds of oil the defendant cor poration, according to the testimony, paid but six cents. It also paid seven and one-half cents on shipments to St. Louis, while the published tariff called for nineteen and one-half cents. The Standard Oil company maintained, however, that it was paying to the Alton road tho legal rate because its shipments did not reach the lines of the Alton until they crossed tho state line at Chappel, 111. To substantiate this a typewritten billing order was submitted showing that the rate from Chicago and neigh boring points, including Whiting, should be six -cents. The government was able to show that the shipments were not made from Chappel but from Whiting and that between the two points there existed a legal ten cent rate. Whiting was over the state line. and therefore this rate did not apply. Tho trial occupied the attention of Judge Landis for six weeks. The jury was sworn in March 4 and the first witness was heard the following day. More than three tons of docu mentary evidence were submitted to the jury. This included more than 15,000 way bills, ship ping orders, receipts and transcripts from rec ords and accountants' books. Throughout the trial there were numerous contentions over technical points, and April 13, the issues were submitted to the jury. After deliberating but two hours and ten minutes the jury returned the verdict of guilty on 1,462 counts. Judge Landis, unable to obtain satisfactory information as to the financial status of the oil concern, on Juno 27 subpoenaed John D. Rock efeller and other officials of the company. He obtained but little information from them, and on August 3 he gave his decision, fixing the fine at $29,240,000, the maximum penalty. A motion that the judgment be set aside was overruled by the court and the case went to the United States circuit court of appeals on a writ of error. It came to a final hearing beforo that tribunal May 7, last. WHAT JUDGE LANDIS SAID Following aro extracts from Judge Landis' opinion when he imposed the fine -upon the Standard Oil company: Common honesty among men ought not to be altogether ignored in business, even in this day. It is the business of the judge to adminis ter the law as he finds it, rather than to ex patiate upon the inadequacy of punishment au thorized for its infraction. This court is unable to indulge the pre sumption that in this case the defendant (the Standard Oil company of Now Jersey) was con- vlcted' of its virgin 'offense. ' m J Wo might as well lopk upon this situation squarely. The men who thus deliberately vio late tho law wound society more deeply than does he who counterfeits the coin or steals let ters froln tho mail. It is the defendant's position that its offense was wholly technical; that nobody has been injured and that therefore tho punish ment, if any, should bo a modest fine. It is novel, indeed, for a convict defendant to urgo the complete triumph of a dishonest course as a reason why such course should go un punished. When the only possible motive for a crime is the enhancement of dividends and the only punishment authorized is a fine, great caution must be exercised by the court lest the fixing of a small amount encourage the defendant to future violations by esteeming the penalty to be in the nature of a license. For the law to take from one of its corpora ate creatures, as a penalty for the commission of a dividend-producing crime, less than one third of the net revenues accrued during the period of violation falls far short of the imposi tion of an excessive fine, and surely to do this would not be the exercise of as much real power as is employed when a sentence is Im posed taking from a human being one day of his liberty. Under the doctrine insisted upon -by , the defendant, the railway company might give the Standard Oil company a low transportation rato and by contract obligate itself to withhold the same rate from the very man the taking of Tvhoso property by condemnation rendered pos sible the construction of . the road. A more abhorrent heresy could not be conceived. The court is not impressed by the doleful predictions of counsel for tho defendants as to the hardships upon the honest shipping public to be anticipated from tho enforcement of this rule. The honest man who tenders a commo dity for transportation to a railway company will not be fraudulently misled by the company into allowing it to haul his property for less than the law authorizes it to collect. The nominal defendant is the Standard Oil company of Indiana, a million dollar corpora tion. The Standard Oil company of New Jer- ' sey,' whose capital is $100,000,000, is the 'real ,; defendant." - WANTED VOLUNTEERS A dispatch to the Denver News under date of Birmingham, Ala.., July 16, follows: John W. Tomlinson, member of the na tional democratic committee, announces that vol unteers to assist in the campaign throughout the United States would be accepted, and asks all speakers to advise him immediately as to states and time desired by the orators. Said he: "Each speaker will be a volunteer fighter, devoting his own time and money to the cause." Tomlinson is one of the most aggressive Bryan leaders in the south. For twelve years he has battled to make the democracy of Ala bama adhere to the policies of the great com moner. "This is no ordinary campaign," said Tom linson today. "Bryan by his declaration on the matter of campaign contributions has raised a tremendous issue. The interests are financing Taft's campaign, and if elected Taft will in a ' great measure be the creature of the interests. Bryan depends upon the people the plain peo ple, if you please to make the fight for him, and if he is elected he will be the servant of the people. "Confronted by such a civ .n, cut issue, it. is time for every lover of his country to take off his coat." .,, ,t. , . ' MOSTLY REPUBLICANS ..- . D. G. Pickett, M. D., Fredonia, N. Y. Enclosed find money order for $28.20 and names of men whom I desire The Commoner sent for one year. This is the center of Chant county, N. Y., where republicans abound to a greater degree than any other place in New York state. Fully half of this list are republi- cans, in fact they are the ones I solicit most. Several republicans have tpid me that they are tired of the old party and want- democracy tried out. I began with the first issue of The Commoner and wish to continue until Mr. Bryan is elected. .' ' 0 V -- ,J- iattU-m ""'"t mmmmamlttiiMAi