Note 289 — Chapter XXVI · PRIVATE-CAR ABUSES.

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.