[190]. Sen. Com., 1905, p. 848.
[191]. Mr. Morton’s letter to President Roosevelt, June 5, 1905. Secretary Morton continues: “The tariff covering this arrangement was published so as to show the freight rate to be $4.05 per ton instead of the delivered price at El Paso and Deming, and did not separate the freight rate from the cost of the coal at the mines, as it should have done. Until the investigation of the case by the Interstate Commerce Commission I did not know personally how the matter was being handled, so far as the publication of the tariff was concerned. My own connection with the case was to see that the traffic was secured to the Atchison rails, and after that details were left to subordinates.”
[192]. Mr. Biddle testified that the same thing had been done for other coal companies, and in one instance at least it was shown that it had been done for the Victor Fuel Company, but in this case “the price of the coal and the rate of freight were kept entirely separate, the price of coal being treated in the nature of an advance charge.” The Commission says further “If the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had in all cases paid the published tariff rate which was exacted from other shippers, the fact that the price of the coal and the freight were included in a single item would have worked no practical advantage to that company so far as we can see. Neither, apparently, would there have been any reason for this arrangement if the purpose of the parties had been honest. If, however, there existed upon the part of the Santa Fe Company an intent to charge the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company less for the transportation of its coal than the published rate, it is evident that this method of billing would afford a ready means for concealing the transaction. In point of fact, during the entire period covered by this investigation (July 1899 to Nov. 27, 1904) the Santa Fe Company did transport coal for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company for less than its open tariff rates, and these concessions amounted in many cases to the price of the coal itself.” (10 I. C. C. Decis. 482, Feb. 1905.)
[193]. See 10 I. C. C. Decis. 473, 487, 488, Feb. 1, 1905.
[194]. “Strategy of Great Railroads,” 1904, p. 167.
[195]. I confess, however, that I do not see how, in the light of the records in the Colorado Case, the Santa Fe counsel could tell the Senate Committee this year that his road had made no discriminating rates (see above, p. 114). Neither is it easy to see how Mr. Biddle could testify that he had not known of the payment of any rebates for 12 years. The Commission says the Santa Fe paid rebates to the Fuel Company till November, 1904, and other preferences have been unearthed, as we shall see hereafter. Some shippers and some consignees have had better terms than others. Mr. Biddle does not call these preferences rebates. The Commission sees that when the Santa Fe collected the published freight rate, $4.05, from the El Paso people and paid for the coal out of that, instead of collecting the $4.05 as freight and leaving the El Paso folks to pay for the coal in addition, the effect was the same to the El Paso people as the payment of a rebate equal to the value of the coal, and the same to the Fuel Company in respect to securing a monopoly of the market, and so the Commission, looking at the substance of the matter and the form too so far as could be judged from the published tariff, called the payments rebates, or payments out of, or deductions from, the regular tariff rates.
[196]. Commissioner Prouty to the Boston Economic Club, March 9, 1905.
[197]. Sen. Com. 1905, p. 3607.
[198]. 10 I. C. C. Decis. 226, and Rep. 1904, pp. 58–59.
[199]. Sen. Com. 1905, p. 367. Testimony of E. M. Ferguson, representing 12 organizations of shippers, State and national.