The Santa Fe used to own and operate coal mines, but in 1896 leased them to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company under a contract[185] supposed to cover the question of freight rates. Afterward a circular in reference to coal rates was issued from the central office of the Santa Fe in Topeka.[186] It stated that coal originating at certain points (where the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had mines) would be delivered when consigned to certain specified industries or parties at prices covering both freight and cost of the coal, which total prices might be, as we have seen, no greater than the published freight rate alone. The circular was headed: “This publication is for the information of employees only, and copies must not be given to the public.”[187] And it gave notice to Santa Fe agents that the Colorado Company’s coal shipped to points on the Santa Fe was “to be billed at figures furnished by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company which will include the freight rate and the price of coal.”[188] The following questions of the I. C. C. counsel, Mr. Field, and answers by Mr. Biddle, the general traffic manager of the Santa Fe, are of interest in this connection: “MR. FIELD. You did not advise the Commission that the rate you made (on the Colorado Company’s coal) included the price of the commodity? “MR. BIDDLE. No. “MR. FIELD. Why didn’t you? “MR. BIDDLE. I didn’t consider it necessary. “MR. FIELD. I ask you categorically if you didn’t do it with the intention of deceiving the Interstate Commerce Commission and the competitors of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company as to that rate. “MR. BIDDLE. No, sir. “MR. FIELD. What was your purpose, Mr. Biddle? “MR. BIDDLE. Well, we did it for business reasons. “MR. FIELD. What were the business reasons? I want you to tell me the reasons. “MR. BIDDLE. We did it for reasons we did not consider necessary to tell; on coal to intermediate points—the rate that we found it necessary to make to points reached by the El Paso and Southwestern. “MR. FIELD. You say upon your oath now, that you did not do it for the purpose of deceiving the Interstate Commerce Commission or the competitors of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company? “MR. BIDDLE. Whatever answer I may make here I am making under oath. “MR. FIELD. Do you say that is so? “MR. BIDDLE. I repeat what I said. “MR. FIELD. You did not intend to conceal from the Interstate Commerce Commission the fact that that rate as published included the price of the commodity? “MR. BIDDLE. We did it for business reasons. “MR. FIELD. I ask you for a categorical answer. Did you or did you not intend to conceal from the Interstate Commerce Commission the fact that that rate included the price of the commodity? “MR. BIDDLE. I decline to answer.”