Page:The History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2.djvu/403

 more than forty-five thousand barrels of oil. The shipments by Mr. Rice might have been retained for the benefit of the railroad had the rate of seventeen and one-half cents per barrel been continued. It is probable that had not the arrangement which we have been considering been entered into, a line would have been put down by the parties represented by O'Day and Scheide, but without the arrangement the patronage of Mr. Rice could have been retained. The result of the arrangement seems to be that the railroad has lost the patronage not only of the parties represented by O'Day and Scheide, but also of Mr. Rice, and it is not to-day carrying a barrel of oil.

The Argand Oil Works and the Argand Refining Company, two corporations located at Marietta, Ohio, have made complaint that from the eighteenth day of February until the fourteenth day of October, 1885, they were shippers of oil from the Macksburg Oil Region, over the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad, and that they were discriminated against by the receiver and his agents. I conceived that the order of your court referring this subject to me was broad enough to cover the complaint made by these corporations and I accordingly called W. H. Slack, W. J. Cramm, C. C. Pickering, and F. G. Carrel as witnesses in regard to this complaint, and their testimony is herewith submitted, together with the account presented by these two corporations and the receipted bills taken by them in payment of freight. From the evidence of these witnesses it appears that these corporations, during the time covered by the complaint, were engaged in refining oil at Marietta, Ohio. They purchased their crude oil of the parties represented by O'Day and Scheide at Macksburg. Their purchases were made by ordering their oil when needed by telegraph from a man by the name of Seep, located at Oil City, Pennsylvania, and they were charged therefor the market price of oil at Oil City on the day when the telegraphic order was given. The oil was then shipped to them over the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad and a bill for freight presented to them in the form following: "The Argand Oil Works, Marietta, Ohio, To the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad Company, Dr."

In these bills they were charged for all oil shipped at the rate of thirty-five cents per barrel. This amount was paid by them to Carrel, the agent of the receiver, at Marietta, Ohio. Of this amount Carrel paid to the receiver ten cents, and to the parties represented by O'Day and Scheide, twenty-five cents. I am of the opinion that these parties were in the same position as George Rice, with the exception that Mr. Rice produced his oil from the ground and shipped it over the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad, and these parties bought their oil instead of producing it from the ground. I cannot see as this difference modifies in any way the discrimination made against them. They claim that from February 18, 1885, until October 14, 1885, they shipped 3,679$6/10$ barrels of oil, for which they were charged $1,232.06 as freight, and that the discriminations against them amounted to $888.70. From their bill certain reduction should be made. All shipments made prior to March 20, 1885, should be excluded for the reason that the discriminating arrangement entered into between the receiver and the