As a matter of fact, discriminating rates and rebates on interstate as well as State business were soon as much in fashion as ever.[55] In one small town in the Middle West judgments for nearly $40,000 were recovered against a railroad for illegal discriminations in that one town. In some cases the discriminations amount to $40 a car. These cases were all subsequent to the Interstate Act. Some years ago the Chief Justice of Kansas declared that the Santa Fe management preceding the present one was notorious for giving secret rebates. The president of the road was asked to resign because the railroad funds were some millions short, due, it is said, to the secret rebates the company had paid. An expert went over the books and discovered that some $7,000,000 had been paid in rebates by the Santa Fe in a few years. Shippers who would not or could not get rebates or concessions were in danger of serious loss and perhaps ruin. Mr. H. F. Douseman, for many years a grain shipper in Chicago, and chairman of the board of trade of that city, had to go out of business because he would not take the rebates he might have had. Before 1887 he took rebates of 10 or 15 percent (2 or 3 cents on the cwt.), but after that he refused them. “Virtue is its own reward,” and Mr. Houseman got his pay in that form. “I feel that I have been driven out of business because I would not accept a rebate,” he told the Industrial Commission. “I have never taken a rebate since the Interstate Law went into effect. I did not propose to put myself in the shape of a criminal.”[56] It may be a matter of surprise to many that even one man of this kind could be found in Chicago. If such virtue were prevalent the enforcement of law would be easy. Mr. Douseman says that for 6 months after the Interstate Law was passed no rebates were paid; everybody was on an equality. “After the first six months, rebates began to be given. At the end of the first year they were quite frequent, and they have continued ever since. Prior to 1887 the only time when rates were absolutely solid, when every one was on the same basis, was when the Vanderbilts were trying to bankrupt the West Shore road, and rates were down to 12 cents in New York. Everybody then, as I understand, had the same rates.”