In March, 1898, the Interstate Commission investigated rebates on flour from St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth to Atlantic seaports. The Commission had information of wide departures from the published tariff. It says: “The inquiry was greatly hampered by the disappearance of material witnesses before subpœnas for their attendance could be served, the inability of several who did testify to recall transactions there of recent date, and the evident reluctance of others to disclose any information bearing on the subject involved. All of the railway witnesses denied knowledge of any violation of the statute, and most of the accounting officers testified to the effect that if rebates had been paid they would necessarily know about them, and that their accounts did not show any such payments. It was nevertheless fully established by the investigation that secret concessions had been generally granted on this traffic, and that the carriers had allowed larger rebates to some shippers than to others.”[355] After the St. Paul investigation in 1898 the Commission entered on an investigation at Portland, Ore., in respect to rates between the coast and points on and east of the Missouri River. “It was established by the proof that secret rates generally prevailed at Portland and common points, and that transportation was, in effect, sold to the lowest bidder. The lawful rates were ignored, except as they might serve as a standard in making agreements for lower charges.... Some of the merchants conformed to the law, but in so doing they were at a disadvantage in competing with those who disregarded the statute; and in many instances this disadvantage represented more than a fair profit upon the commodities involved. Most of the merchants who admitted that they had thus violated the law declared themselves unable to remember who paid them the rebates, or when or upon what shipments any illegal rate concessions had been made. Some testified that they had kept account of the unlawful transactions, but that when they heard of this investigation they destroyed their memoranda in order to defeat prosecutions on account of their illegal acts. They insisted that without these data they could give no specific testimony concerning any of the transactions.”[356] The Commission found in these and other investigations that “unlawful rebates have been and are being paid by a great number of carriers,” but they could not get the specific evidence necessary for prosecutions.[357] In its Report for 1904, p. 104, the Commission says: “Railroad officials often seem to think that it is their duty to withhold facts, on account of some real or supposed liability to make disclosures that will impair the railroad’s rights or interests in future judicial proceedings. Some companies seem to have adopted a settled policy to give the least possible information, at all times, on any and all subjects.”