"  Then  they" — the  pipe  lines — "  were  anxious  to  get  good
paying  rates,"  *  so  that  they  conld  make  a  good  thing  out  of
the  business  of  thew  own  pipe  and  of  the  Tidewater  which
they  had  goaranteed  $500,000  a  year.    The  advent  of  the

■  Teatinioiiy,  TitaiTtlle  ud  Oil  City  Independeau'  cum,  Sot.  1S8,  164,  ISI,
IstatsUle  Cammena  Commluion ;  DepotitioD  of  Oenenl  Freight  Ageot  PbuimjI-
nuiaBMlmul,  pp.  SSI,  6S4.
8SLF-SACRIF1CING  RAILROADS  119

iadependent  Tidewater  had  brought  rates  down.  The  resto-
ration of  exclusive  control  bj  its  capture  put  rates  up.  But  it
was  not  enough  for  the  oil  combination  to  advance  their  own
rates.  It  must  induce  the  railroads  to  do  the  same.  The
railroads  had  furnished  the  means  for  the  acquisition  of  both
pipes,  and  they  must  now  be  got  to  drive  business  away  from
themselves  to  these  competing  oil  railways.  This  would  seem
to  be  a  delicate  matter  to  achieve,  but  there  was  no  trouble
about  it.
^  It  is  our  pleasure  to  try  to  make  oil  cheap,"  *  the  presi-
dent of  the  oil  trust  told  Congress,  but  it  did  not  use  its  new
facilities  to  take  in  hand  at  reduced  cost  the  carriage  of  all
oil|  and  give  the  industry  the  economic  advantage  of  the
pipe-line  idea.  Quite  the  contrary.  It  united  with  the  rail-
roads to  increase  the  cost.  Under  this  new  blow  the  inde-
pendent refiners  and  producers  whom  the  Tidewater  had  been
built  to  keep  afloat  grounded  again.  Then  the  railroads —
the  Pennsylvania  especially — repented  of  what  they  had  done
to  these  their  oldest  customers,  and  sent  ambassadors  to  them
to  renew  the  broken  promises  of  1872,  that  if  they  would  re-
build they  should  forever  have  equal  rates  and  fair  treatment.
