Railroads sometimes seek to evade the law by contracting to deliver goods at a certain price including the freight and the payment for the goods in one lump sum, so that the freight charge is merged and cannot be ascertained. Nine years ago, in 1896, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad contracted with the New York, New Haven and Hartford to deliver 2,000,000 tons of coal at New Haven at $2.75 a ton. The published freight rate at that time was $1.15 and the price of the coal at the mines $2 a ton. The Interstate Commerce Commission held that this was a discrimination by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad against every independent mine owner in its territory, and that the railroad had no right to contract to sell coal at any price. The Federal Court sustained this view, and it is stated that the Department of Justice will ask the Supreme Court for a blanket injunction against the two railroads, restraining them from carrying freight at less than the published rates. It is said that J. Pierpont Morgan guaranteed that the Chesapeake and Ohio would perform the contract. Action _against_ an individual or company is quite as effective a form of discrimination as action in favor of a rival. Shippers at a certain place on the Chicago and Northwestern were handicapped by refusal of through rates on asbestos, compelling them to pay higher rates than their competitors.[82] A Southern railroad charged the Bigby Packet Company a much higher rate on cotton from Mobile to New Orleans than the established rate on local shipments of cotton, in order to discourage shipments by way of the Packet Company from the point of origin in Alabama, and compel the cotton to travel all the way by rail.[83] CHAPTER X. DENIAL OF FAIR FACILITIES.