CHAPTER XXX. SUMMARY OF METHODS AND RESULTS. We have dug down through the geologic epochs of discrimination, and have examined the living varieties. The predominant forms have changed, but none of the species we find among the fossils of the earlier strata have become extinct, though some of them, ticket scalping and the direct rebate for instance, are much less in evidence than formerly. Passes[344] and other personal discriminations[345] still prevail, and the assortment of favoritisms in freight traffic is larger than ever. Here is a list of more than 60 forms of discrimination that are now in use, many of them constantly and others as occasion may demand:— Passes. Ticket brokerage. Private passenger-coaches. Gifts of stock. Tips on the market. Secret rates. Rebates. Elevator and compress fees. Commissions to favored shippers as though they were agents of the company, to secure for it their own freight. Salaries to favored persons as nominal employees, or fees for nominal services. High salaries or commissions to real traffic agents who divide with favored shippers. Cash contributions to shippers in the guise of payments to “encourage new industries.” Paying “transfer allowances” to some shippers for carting their own goods. The “strawman” system. “Expense bill” abuses. Loans to dealers and shippers or consignees to increase shipments or divert them from other roads. Combination rates of which informed shippers may take advantage. Making the published rate cover the price of the goods as well as the freight for some shippers. Flying rates, or “midnight tariffs.” Terminal or private-railway abuses—unfair division of rates, etc. Private-car abuses—big mileage rates, excessive icing charges, exclusive contracts, etc. Espionage, giving some shippers inside information of the business of other shippers. Maintaining or paying for the maintenance of tracks or other property belonging to the shipper. The long and short haul abuse. Unjust differences in the rates accorded different places to favor certain localities, or individuals who have business interests located there. Unduly low rates to “competitive points” in general, as compared with local rates, building the cities at the expense of the country. Unfair classification. Use of different classification for local and for through traffic. Laxity of inspection in case of special shippers, enabling them to get low rates on mixed goods in carloads billed at the rate appropriate to the lowest product in the mass. Intentional mistakes in printing tariffs, a few copies being run off for favored shippers, after which the mistakes are discovered and corrected for the ordinary shipper and the Interstate Commission. Fictitious entries in the “prepaid” column of the freight bill.