Rebating in the early days consisted in simply refunding by direct payment to the favored shipper, a certain proportion of the freight bill. This refund might be in cash, in presents to himself or his family, in salary allowances to clerks, in free passes, or in free transportation of other goods. In a recent case in New York it has taken the form of importer's "commissions." But, since 1887 at least, an inconvenience in all such transactions is their necessary entry in some form or other upon the books of the company. Of course such rebates could be covered up as a fictitious charge to operating expenses; or, as in the case of the Atchison in 1893, might be carried as an asset, as if such refunds would ever be paid. Nearly $4,000,000 was thus entered as padding in Atchison assets, when it went into a receiver's hands at that time.[165] Much of the flagrant Standard Oil rebating in the eighties was almost openly, and certainly boldly, carried on by these means. But public sentiment was always against it; and of course, it was a breach of good faith as between the railways themselves, in their endeavor to maintain agreed rates. Secrecy, therefore, always attaches to these transactions; and the most ingenious devices were invented to confer favors without detection. Underclassification of freight was a very common device in the old days. It has reappeared again since 1907 in much the same form. There is a great difference between the freight on a keg of nails and of fine brass hardware or cutlery. Who is to know whether a shipment be billed as one or the other? Is every box of dry goods to be examined in order to discover whether it contains silks or the cheapest cotton cloth? A carload of lumber or cordwood might easily by prearrangement be filled inside with high grade package freight. The utmost vigilance is in fact necessary on the part of carriers, to prevent such fraudulent practices by shippers. Under the Joint Rate Trunk Line Inspection Bureau in 1893, 183,575 such false descriptions or underweighings were detected on westbound shipments from seaboard cities alone.[166] What the amount of such Underclassification of freight by collusion between agent and shipper was, can only be conjectured. Even more difficult to detect was the practice of under-billing.[167] At a certain time, the rate on flour from Minneapolis to New York was thirty cents per hundredweight, divided between connecting roads in the proportion of ten cents from Minneapolis to Chicago, and twenty cents from there on to destination. In the meantime, as against this ten cent proportion of the through rate to New York, the local rate from Minneapolis to Chicago was twelve and one-half cents. As between two rival shippers, the one sending to Chicago on a New York through rate instead of a local one, would enjoy a clear advantage of twenty-five per cent. over his competitor. And who was to know whether a car billed through to New York, was really