Within 5 days after the Commission was appointed a large number of railroads applied for relief from the long and short haul clause; and in many cases, on the ground of water competition, etc., relief was given.[135] The Commission held that dissimilar circumstances existed under the 4th section in case of competition with water carriers, or railroads not under the Act (foreign railroads and railroads lying wholly within a single State), and in “rare and peculiar cases of competition between interstate railroads, when a strict application of the rule would be destructive of legitimate competition,”[136] but ordinarily competition between interstate roads was not regarded as sufficient to relieve them from the 4th section. In November, 1892, the Commission decided the famous Alabama Midland Case. The complaint was that rates from the East and Northeast to Troy, Ala., were higher than to Montgomery, a longer haul passing through Troy. The railroads pleaded competition at Montgomery. The Commission held that railway competition would not justify departure from the rule of Section 4 of the Interstate Act. Five years later, in November, 1897, the United States Supreme Court sustained the judgment of the Circuit Court and Circuit Appeals Court, overruling the Commission, and held that the existence of railway competition at Montgomery made a substantial difference of circumstances within the meaning of the exception in Section 4.[137] The Court held that competition even of interstate lines is a substantial difference of conditions which may justify a greater charge for a short than for a long haul, but said, “We do not hold that the mere fact of competition, no matter what its character or extent, necessarily relieves the carrier from the restraints of the 3rd and 4th sections.” In the 2d section, which prohibits any rebate or discrimination and is intended to enforce equality of shippers over the same line, “‘similar circumstances and conditions’ refers to matters of carriage, and does not include competition between rival routes;” but in the 3d and 4th sections “similar circumstances and conditions” includes competition, which “is one of the most obvious and effective circumstances that make the conditions under which a long and short haul is performed, and substantially dissimilar.” The railroad people think the circumstances are very dissimilar also when the Oil Trust or the Beef Combine threatens to take hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business if they don’t get the rates and facilities they want, while Messrs. A. B. C., etc., ship their goods and pay the schedule rates without suggesting any reduction. This dissimilarity is harder for the railroads to deal with than the other. They can stop competing among themselves on long-haul schedule rates more easily than they can enforce equal rates on the big shippers.