Ticket scalping, “an obvious evasion of the law,” and the payment of commissions on the sale of tickets in addition to salaries, so that the brokers were tempted to cut rates dividing their commissions with their customers, continued in full bloom in spite of the Federal law. The commissions were $1 from New England points to Chicago; $1 from Chicago to the Missouri River; and $1 from the river to Denver. In addition to such definite amounts some roads paid 10 percent on their receipts for the passage, making a total commission of $4 or $5 or more in some cases for the sale of a single ticket.[45] “In cases of commissions of only $1 for short distances there may be little or no inducement for the agent to divide with the passenger, but in cases of cumulative commissions for long distances the temptation to divide is stronger, and the probability of abuse is so great that the impropriety of putting the opportunity before the agent is manifest. It is not unusual for a single company to pay a sum of $100,000 or even more in a year, and the aggregate entailed reaches millions of dollars. This money is illegitimately spent; it is paid in excess of salaries to agents for the purpose of taking business from competitors, and when competitors all do it, it is difficult to see how any benefit can accrue from it to any company.”[46] In 1890 the Commission reported that scalpers were supported by the railroads. They found 15 scalping offices in Chicago, 9 in Cincinnati, 13 in New York, 7 in Kansas City, etc. In 1895 they found that scalping “was steadily enlarging in scope and volume.”[47] In 1897 the “vicious practice” was still in full swing, though New York, New Jersey, and eight other States had passed stringent laws against it.[48] But it has now been largely reduced, though by no means abolished, and the diminution has come, not because the law acquired sufficient vigor to get itself enforced, but because the railroad presidents combined to stop the practice, which was recognized to be injurious to railroad interests.[49] In respect to other forms of discrimination between passengers the Commission ordered that rates for groups or parties must not be lower than the regular fare for one passenger multiplied by the number of persons in the party,[50] and that although separate cars might be provided for colored persons, they must have equal accommodations with white people who pay the same fare.[51] Turning to freight discriminations, we find that a bewildering mass of questions and complaints has pressed upon the Commission. It has shown an earnest desire for justice, and for the most part good judgment, but it has accomplished comparatively little in the way of stopping unjust discriminations. Witnesses refused to testify, on the ground that testimony in respect to rebates and other forms of discrimination might be used to convict them of crime.