“Mr. Robbins. Yes, sir.”
[289]. I. C. C. Hearing on Private Cars, 1904, pp. 147–149. Mr. Brown, counsel for the Santa Fe, said to the Senate Committee, 1905, that he wished to put on record a sweeping denial that the A. T. & S. F. Co. has made any discriminatory rates or paid any rebates. The next moment, in answer to a question about the reduction of $25 a car below the published tariff, to which Mr. Leeds testified as given by the Santa Fe car-line, Mr. Brown said: “It was a rebate given to every one.” (Rep. Sen. Com. on Interstate Commerce, May, 1905, p. 3140.) He first said the road did not give any rebates, and then admitted it did give rebates, but said it gave the same rebate to every one that shipped. The coal mines that paid the Santa Fe $4 against $2.90 paid by the Colorado Fuel Co. would hardly agree to that statement. But Mr. Brown had in mind the car-line case in which they said the same rebate was given to every shipper. Mr. Leeds said it was a secret rate, and that he went to California and solicited business from various shippers. Under such circumstances, the fact that every one who shipped got the rebate does not eliminate discrimination but accentuates it. The discrimination is against the man who does not ship, the man who is not informed of the secret rebate. The Santa Fe car-line informed such dealers as it chose. No others could afford to ship on the Santa Fe. The instructed dealers could easily hold the market at prices that would prevent the uninstructed from thinking about shipping such goods.
[290]. Rep. 1904, p. 13.
[291]. Mr. Streychmans has been accused of stealing this code book and also certain letters and papers, but in fact he took no original papers, but only carbon copies of letters and statements he wrote for the company, and the code book was put into his possession for use in his work by the secretary of Armour’s general manager. If any charge of stealing or any other criminal charge could be made, Streychmans would long ago have been prosecuted by the Beef Trust people. When he began giving publicity to the facts in his possession the general manager tried to buy him off. He was shamefully treated by some of the Armour officers, and partly in revenge, probably, and partly in gratitude to the editor of the San Francisco Examiner for helping him out of California and the Armour grip, he gave the editor copies of letters, etc., the publication of which led to his examination by the Commission.
[292]. Testimony of J. W. Midgley, for over 20 years commissioner, chairman and arbitrator for various Western railroads. I. C. C. Hearing, April, 1904, p. 8. The reader who is specially interested in the Beef Trust and its doings should send for a copy of this Hearing, and those of 1901–1902. The report of the Bureau of Commerce Mar. 3, 1905, and Mr. Baker’s articles in McClure’s for Jan. 1906 and following months, are also of the deepest interest.
[293]. Sen. Com. 1905, p. 311. The organizations represented by Mr. Ferguson are the Western Fruit Jobbers’ Association; the National Retail Grocers’ Association; the Minnesota Jobbers’ Association; Wisconsin Retail and General Merchandise Association; Wisconsin Master Butchers’ Association; Minnesota State Retail Grocers’ Association, Superior, Wis.; Lake Superior Butchers’ Association, Duluth, Minn.; Duluth Commercial Club; Duluth Produce and Fruit Exchange, and the Iowa Fruit Jobbers’ Association.
[294]. Rep. U. S. Industrial Commission, iv, p. 53.
[295]. The Standard has the tanks and private sidings all over the New Haven’s territory while few are owned by the independents. Persons without these facilities must pay 2d-class rates, while the Standard Oil pays 5th class. The 5th class rate between Boston and New Haven is 10 cents per hundred, while the 2d class is 20 cents, the difference probably representing several times the profit in handling one hundred lbs. of kerosene. (Commissioner Prouty, in Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1900.)
[296]. Ind. Com. iv, p. 53.
[297]. Sen. Com., 1905, pp. 2740, 2742.