Note 177 — Chapter XVII · THE ELKINS ACT AND ITS EFFECTS.

In the report for 1905, p. 13, the Commission refers to the fact that in the reports for 1903 and 1904 some favorable comments were made on the effect of the Elkins Law upon the practice of paying rebates, and says: “Further experience, however, compels us to modify in some degree the hopeful expectations then entertained. Not only have various devices for evading the law been brought into use, but the actual payment of rebates as such has been here and there resumed. [It never stopped in a good many places, judging by the La Follette facts and other evidence, including the statements of many leading railroad men.] Instances of this kind have been established by convincing proof. More frequently the unjust preference is brought about by methods which may escape the penalties of the law, but which plainly operate to defeat its purpose.”