President Ripley of the Santa Fe declares that the rates on beef products between Kansas City and Chicago are so low that every carload is carried at a loss to the roads. Here are his figures: Dressed meats: Actual cost per car, $82.19; revenue, $42.19; deficit, per car, $40. Packing-house products: Cost per car, $85.03; revenue, $56; deficit, $29.03. He also asserts that cattle are now hauled at a loss. Other witnesses have disputed President Ripley’s statement of cost, but however this may be it is evident that the Beef Trust has been very generous to itself in the rates it has compelled the railroads to adopt for its shipments. The railroads do not like to be bossed either by the Beef Trust or the Standard Oil, but they declare that they cannot help themselves. President Ripley says: “The packing-house business to-day is concentrated in so few hands that this fact, together with the competition between the railroads, practically makes it possible for the latter to dictate rates for dressed beef and the packing-house products.” President Stickney of the Great Western Railroad says: “In fixing the rate on dressed meat we don’t have very much to say. The packer generally makes the rate. He comes to you and asks how much you charge for a certain shipment of dressed meats. The published tariff may be 23 cents a hundred, but he will not pay that. You say to him: ‘I’ll carry your meat for 18 cents.’ He says: ‘Oh, no, you won’t. I won’t pay that.’ Then you say: ‘Well, what will you pay for it?’ He then replies, ‘I can get it hauled for 16 cents.’ So you haul it for 16 cents a hundred.” President Calloway, speaking to the Interstate Commission about the speeding of the beef cars and other Armour exactions, said: “We do not do these foolish things from choice. I will say that the thing is just as bad and foolish and stupid as can be, but what are you going to do about it? We have built up these dressed-beef men and they have all got their own cars, and they can dictate what they are going to pay. They just keep these cars humping. We unload them and get them back to Chicago just as quickly as we can. The Pennsylvania people also were very much disinclined to allow or foster this dressed-beef business, but were forced into it.” Very few railroads have dared to fight either Armour or Rockefeller openly, but secretly the railroads did combine to fight these men and employed an agent, Mr. Midgley of Chicago, for that purpose, whose investigations and disclosures have done much to throw light upon the hidden ways of the Trust magnates.