“No, sir; it is paid on all oil received and transferred by us.” Among the interesting documents presented at this inquiry was a statement of the crude oil shipments over the Pennsylvania road for February and March, 1878.[77] They footed up to a total of 343,767½ barrels. On this amount a discount of twenty cents a barrel was allowed to the Standard Oil Company through its agent, the American Transfer Company. Among other independents who shipped this oil was H. C. Ohlen. In all, Mr. Ohlen shipped 29,876 barrels, and on this the Standard Oil Company received twenty cents a barrel! That is, after Mr. Ohlen had paid for his oil, paid for having it carried by the pipe-line to the railroad, and paid the railroad the full rate of freight without the commission the Standard received, the Pennsylvania was obliged to turn over to the Standard Oil Company twenty cents of the amount he had paid on each barrel! The examiner tried very hard to find out if there was a legitimate reason why such an allowance should have been made to the American Transfer Company on oil it did not handle. “We pay that,” Mr. Cassatt said, “as a commission to them to aid in securing us our share of trade.” “We pay it,” said the comptroller, “for procuring oil to go over the lines in which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is interested as against the New York lines and the New York Central.” “Do you understand,” the examiner questioned of one of the auditors, “that the American Transfer Company secured to the Pennsylvania road the traffic of the outside refiners of New York (mentioned in the statement quoted above)?” “I never raised a question of that kind in my mind,” answered the adroit auditor. But the answer was evident. The American Transfer Company had nothing whatever to do with the oil shipped by Mr. Ohlen or Ayres, Lombard and Company or J. Rousseaux or any one of the other independents mentioned in the statement, unless perchance that oil had come originally from the lines of the American Transfer Company. In that case the shipper had paid the line for the service rendered, at the time he bought the oil—the custom then and now. The tax was paid by the Pennsylvania solely because the Standard Oil Company had the power to demand it. The demand was made in the name of the American Transfer Company as a blind. Naturally the proof that the Standard had revived the most obnoxious feature of the South Improvement Company aroused intense bitterness and disgust among the oil men.