Rebate equivalents were given in the form of elevator rebates and allowances. Elevators owned or controlled by railroad companies were leased at nominal charges to favored shippers, or secret commissions were paid to favored parties for all grain consigned to specified elevators. One railroad for example paid a concern, holding a line of elevators on the railroad, 1¼ cents per 100 on all grain consigned to those elevators.[78] In this case the consignment was 150 cars a day from November to May, averaging 32,000 to 34,000 lbs. a car. The commissions therefore amounted to $4 a car, $600 a day, $120,000 a year. The United States Industrial Commission says, under the head of “Freight discriminations and allowances to elevators:” “On each of the leading railways from grain-producing sections to Chicago, allowances, ranging from one-half to 1½ cents per bushel, are made on grain to one or two favored firms.... The favored elevators are thus enabled to pay higher prices for grain. The average profit in handling grain is less than 1½ cents per bushel, and smaller buyers can thus easily be driven out of business.... The small shipper being driven out of business, the large dealer is then in a position to depress the price of grain to the producer.”[79] The railroads deny equal rights in the building of elevators. A railroad which had granted the right for two elevators at Elmwood on the company’s right of way refused to give H. & Co. the same privilege. The State Board of Transportation ordered the railroad to discontinue the discrimination against H. & Co., and give them the same privileges as others. But the United States Supreme Court held that the road could not be forced to grant its property for private use.[80] One method of discrimination I learned of in the West a few years ago is not adequately described in any report.[81] The head of a road running into Chicago from Missouri River points formed a grain company to buy grain in Kansas City and sell it in Chicago. The railway guaranteed the grain company against loss. When wheat was 50 cents in Kansas City and 60 cents in Chicago, the grain company paid 51 cents in Kansas City to get the grain. The railroad charged the regular 10 cent tariff. The grain was sold at 60. The railroad paid back 1 cent on the guarantee and still made 9 cents. And the railroad-grain-company-combine was able to drive other buyers out of the market and other railroads out of the traffic. The Santa Fe, for example, carried 28 percent of the grain going into Kansas City, but only hauled 3 percent out to Chicago.