One result of the exclusive contracts is that “charges for refrigeration have been enormously and unreasonably increased.”[279] The Interstate Commerce Commission says that “under the operation of these exclusive contracts the cost of icing to the shipper (some shippers) has been advanced from 50 to 150 percent and that the charges in most cases are utterly unreasonable.[280] At first the railroads made no charge for icing. Gradually the practice of making small charges for ice was introduced, but the charges did not go much if any beyond the cost of the service. They were very mild compared to the present refrigeration taxes. The charges made by the railroads and even by the Armour Car-Line before it secured the exclusive contracts, range from ½ to ⅙ of the present Armour icing charges. From the Pacific to Duluth over the Northern Pacific or the Great Northern, which still own and operate their own refrigerator cars, the icing charge on a carload of fruit is $25, while the Armour charge by the Southern lines is $107 per car. From Rochester to Cincinnati railroads using their own refrigerator cars charge $5 for icing. For the same distance and time the Trust charges $35. The icing charge for a Pennsylvania car from Silver Creek, N. Y. to Chicago, 500 miles, is $7.75 to $10; the Trust’s ice charge is $25 from Lawton, Michigan, to Chicago, 120 miles. The icing charge under the exclusive contract with the Armour lines is $45 on a car of pineapples from Mobile to Cincinnati, against $12.50 from New Orleans to Cincinnati over the Illinois Central. In 1898 the Armour charge for ice from Michigan to Boston was $20 per car. In 1904 its charge was $55 a car for the same service over the same route. The icing charge on an independent refrigerator car from Chautauqua, N. Y., to Chicago, 550 miles, is $10, against $84 in the Trust cars from Gibson to Chicago, 522 miles. In 1902, before the exclusive contract with the Pere Marquette Railroad, the icing charge from Mattawan, Mich., to Duluth was $7.50, while the present refrigerator charge between the same points in the same Armour cars is $45. On shipments of strawberries, etc., from the South, the Armour icing charges are $45 a car, against $10 to $15 over roads that have not yet capitulated to the Beef Combine. The Armour icing charge on strawberries from Tennessee to Chicago is $84, against $30 on the Illinois Central and $15 actual cost.[281] From many points on the Pere Marquette Railroad in Michigan to Chicago where the railroad charge for refrigeration used to be $6 a car, the rate under the Armour contract has been increased 416 percent.[282] In the Duluth case above mentioned the increase was 500 percent. This, however, is more than the average. From the great vegetable growing regions of Mississippi and Alabama to Cincinnati the charge for ice was $27 before the exclusive contracts were made. Afterward the price was raised to $60 and a little later to $75.