Knowing that serious misrepresentations have appeared in the papers,—for example, that Mr. Morton was a stockholder in the Colorado Fuel Company, and recreant to Atchison interests, which was untrue, as Mr. Morton had sold his stock in the Fuel Company and all its auxiliaries when he left its employ before entering the service of the Atchison in 1895—knowing the frailty of newspaper reports I wrote to President Ripley and Paul Morton asking if it were true that they had said Mr. Biddle did right in making the arrangement with the Colorado Fuel Company in respect to the rates to Deming, etc. They replied as follows: THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM. _President’s Office._ CHICAGO, August 22d. 1905. DEAR SIR,—I did say to the Press that Mr. Biddle’s action in making the rate was exactly right. The whole trouble arose from a mistake in our tariff printing department in confusing the actual rate charged with the amount to be collected at destination. It was our custom, and that of all the other fuel roads in Colorado, to collect at destination the price of the coal as well as the freight rate. Inasmuch as the tariffs printed are a guide intended quite as much for the information of our own agents as for the public, the clerks included the price of coal in the tariff as a guide to collecting agents, but it did not occur to them that the information was liable to mislead the public, especially as it was a well-known fact that no shipper except the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company could possibly be interested. The whole transaction was a perfectly innocent one so far as regards any intent to injure any interests or to deceive the public in any way, nor was any person injured by the transaction. I think that all this will transpire and be recognized by the court in the case now pending at Kansas City, though, of course, I am not in position to anticipate a court decision. The trouble with the whole matter was the fact that Mr. Morton was a member of the Cabinet and that certain portions of the Press made use of the incident for the purpose of discrediting the Administration. The matter was unfortunate in so far as it may have constituted a technical violation of the Interstate Commerce Law and of the Injunction, but that is the worst that can be said of it. (_Signed_) E. P. RIPLEY. THE EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY. _President’s Office._ NEW YORK, August 24, 1905.