The railroads continue to nullify the protective tariff upon imports, and erect a counter protective tariff of their own in favor of foreign goods and against domestic manufactures, aiming to supply home markets, while on the other hand they facilitate the export of our productions by rates much lower than the charges on the same goods for the same haul when intended for domestic consumption. The effort seems to enable our producers to capture foreign markets, and to give our markets, especially the transcontinental markets, to foreign shippers. Anything to get business, long hauls, ton-miles. The Industrial Commission found that merchandise for export went from Chicago to New York at 80 percent of the ordinary transportation rates, and grain from Kansas City to Chicago took 3 cents a hundred lower rate if billed for export than if intended for local consumption.[331] The export rate on wheat from Chicago to New York is 15 cents, the domestic rate 20 cents; from Kansas City to Galveston the export rate is 17 cents against a domestic rate of 33½ cents.[332] Another recent investigation shows that wheat from Kansas City to Galveston was paying 27 cents if for domestic use, against 10 cents if intended for export. The rates fluctuate, but if the domestic rate flies low the foreign rate flies lower still. The price of grain in Liverpool is determined by world competition; the railroads cut rates so that our grain can be sold in Liverpool. They get a little more than the cost of hauling and are satisfied. When oil is selling at 9 cents a gallon here it can be bought at 3 cents for shipment to Europe. Railroads often give manufacturers a reduction of 33⅓ percent for export, and manufacturers sell at 30 percent less for export. Mr. Bacon told the Senate Committee (1905) that the export rates from all inland points to the seaboard have been for years 25 to 33 percent below the rates on goods for domestic use.[333] The rate on rails from Pittsburg to Hongkong via San Francisco is only 60 cents per hundred, or less than the rate between points a few hundred miles apart in this country. “For the past two years the trunk lines have given the steel and iron producers a reduction of 33⅓ percent less than the published tariff on domestic freights, so that all iron and steel exported is carried at one-third less than the people of this country are required to pay on freight of the same character.”[334]