“Mr. Biddle. I repeat what I said.
“Mr. Field. You did not intend to conceal from the Interstate Commerce Commission the fact that that rate as published included the price of the commodity?
“Mr. Biddle. We did it for business reasons.
“Mr. Field. I ask you for a categorical answer. Did you or did you not intend to conceal from the Interstate Commerce Commission the fact that that rate included the price of the commodity?
“Mr. Biddle. I decline to answer.”
In another part of the hearing, Mr. Field said to Mr. Biddle: “Can you say, Mr. Biddle, how it happened that you issued a circular to your subordinates in which you said, with reference to these coal rates, ‘To be billed at figures furnished by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, which include the freight rates and the price of coal; the rates issued in the regular tariffs to be the minimum’?”
“Mr. Biddle. Yes, sir.
“Mr. Field. Will you tell us?
“Mr. Biddle. It is because the railroads—the Western railroads particularly—I don’t know whether the Eastern roads do it or not—have been engaged in the reprehensible occupation of serving as a collecting agency for the coal companies, and those particular instructions were given so that the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company could sell coal to John Smith at a given place and charge him $1.25 and somebody else $1.50 for that same coal.”[[189]]
When the document was presented in evidence before the Interstate Commerce Commission, counsel for the railway objected to its introduction on the ground that it had been stolen.