The Combine used the railroads to ruin its rivals, and did it with a definiteness and vigor of attack never before attempted, and with a success that would have been impossible without the use of the railroad power. An example or two will make the matter clear. Mr. Corrigan, an oil refiner of Cleveland, became so prosperous in the seventies that he attracted the attention of the Standard Oil, and in 1877 he began to have trouble. He could not get the crude oil he bought shipped to Cleveland, nor his product shipped away, with reasonable promptness. The railroads refused him cars, and delayed his shipments after they were loaded. And he was driven to lease and finally sell his works to the Standard, which had no difficulty in getting cars and securing prompt service. George Rice became a producer of oil in 1865. A little later he established a refinery at Marietta, Ohio. In January, 1879, the freight rates on oil were raised by the railroads leading out of Marietta, and by their connections. In some cases the rates were doubled, while the rates from Cleveland, Pittsburg, Wheeling, and other points where the Combine had refineries, were lowered. The Baltimore & Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore, and all the other railroads involved, made the deal in unison, and after a secret conference of railway officials with the Standard Oil people. The change hurt the railroads, cut off their business in oil from Marietta entirely, but they obeyed the orders of the Standard nevertheless. “What would be the inducement?” the freight agent of the B. & O. connection was asked. “That is a matter I am not competent to answer,” he replied.[26]