“The representatives of the railways declare that so long as competition exists the attempt to get traffic by secret rates must continue. It is thought generally that there has been a considerable improvement in the situation during the year 1899.... In the latter part of 1898, Messrs. Cowen and Murray, receivers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, addressed a letter to the Interstate Commerce Commission declaring that the practice of granting rates below the published tariffs was so general as seriously to reduce the revenue of the railroads. More than 50 percent of the traffic, at least on certain roads, was affected. The receivers expressed a determination to coöperate in the enforcement of the law. Later, conferences were held between the Interstate Commerce Commission and railway officers, which led to a general attempt to reduce the extent of the evil. Many witnesses, however, including representatives of the railroads, think that the improvement is only temporary, and that when the present rush of traffic has ceased discriminating rates will be granted more and more.” The investigations of the last five years show that these witnesses were right in thinking the cessation of hostilities to be only a temporary truce. CHAPTER XVII. THE ELKINS ACT AND ITS EFFECTS. The “Elkins Act,” approved Feb. 19, 1903, amended the Interstate Act in some important particulars. It provides that any failure to publish rates and charges, or any departure from the published tariffs, or any offer or grant of any discrimination, rebate, concession, or device of any kind whereby transportation is obtained at a less rate than the tariffs published and filed with the Commission, shall be a misdemeanor of the corporation as well as of the officers or agents concerned. Every shipper also who solicits or accepts any such rebate, concession, or discrimination is guilty of a misdemeanor. In each case, whether the suit is against the railway company, or its officials, or a shipper, the punishment is a fine of $1,000 to $20,000 for each offence, the imprisonment clause of the Interstate Act being repealed. Under these provisions the railroad companies themselves may be attacked, in addition to the suits against the guilty officials provided for by the Interstate Act, and shippers may be convicted by showing that by any device they have obtained a lower rate than the published rate, without proving that some one else paid more than the defendant, as was formerly necessary.