In general the rates from the East to Spokane are the through rates to the coast plus the local rates from the coast back to Spokane.[316] The preference which Tacoma, Seattle, etc., have over Spokane is about 80 percent. Spokane pays about $1.80 on shipments from Chicago, while Tacoma and Seattle pay $1.[317] Spokane is a great railroad junction, but competition has been suppressed by agreement between the lines, while competition is still active at Tacoma and Seattle, so that under the decision of the Supreme Court the railroads are free to discriminate against Spokane. Aside from water competition the railroads want to build up Seattle. They have invested a great deal of money in docks and facilities for doing business there. The manufacture of wooden pipe was flourishing in Spokane. The company was shipping 2 carloads daily and its pay roll was $3,000 a month. A rival factory in Seattle, backed by the big lumber firms of the coast, got the railways to make rates that enabled it to lay down the manufactured pipe in Spokane about 60 percent cheaper than the Spokane factory could make it. The situation came to light November, 1903, two months after the rates went into effect, when the Spokane factory came into competition with the Seattle factory for a contract at Butte. The bid of the Seattle firm was less than the pipe could be sold for at Spokane by the factory in that city, and Butte is 384 miles east of Spokane. The rates shut off the Spokane factory from the East entirely. In about 8 months that flourishing manufacture in Spokane was wiped out.[318] There was no water competition here to make an excuse for discrimination, for the cut was made from Seattle east to Spokane and points still further east. The paper-box manufacture was forced out of existence in Spokane by similar discriminations. Eastern factories can lay down the boxes in Spokane cheaper than the local factories can get the strawboard. So with other trades. The manufacture of sash would be rapidly developed if it were not for the grievous discrimination on window glass, $1.38 from Pittsburg to Spokane, against 90 cents to Portland, Seattle, etc. CHAPTER XXVIII. OTHER PLACE DISCRIMINATIONS.