_A._ If I were allowed to say what I think, I should reply in the affirmative and to say that one great reason why we went into this arrangement was to stop that Erie combination, which was a great source of difficulty; we could not get hold of the matter; we would ship a cargo of oil at a fair price to-day, and would be compelled to sell it to-morrow at a much less price; this arrangement did break up that combination entirely, so that there is no combination of that sort to-day. By the Chairman. _Q._ I understand that your larger combinations swallowed up the Erie combination. _A._ It destroyed it at the time. _Q._ Yours was somewhat in the direction of the Erie combination, but larger? _A._ No, sir; it was not; the Erie was with some merchants, ours embraces the whole refining interest in the country; that was different; I will state that since I came into this Capitol I have been told that the very men engaged in prosecuting this investigation have a combination by which they intend to run up the price of their oil; I hope they will; I do not care what means are used, so that we can carry on our business, and pay just what others have to pay. * * * * * _Q._ I understand you to say that under your arrangement the cost of crude oil might be increased $1.25 a barrel, and that there is produced about 18,000 barrels daily in the Oil Regions of Pennsylvania, but not that on an average; can you state from memory about the amount of annual production? _A._ I have a circular here which gives the statement as 5,775,000 barrels. _Q._ So that the production in round numbers for last year was 6,000,000 barrels; now, of this $1.25, how much were you to get as your drawback if you had carried out your arrangement? _A._ The maximum we would have been entitled to receive is one dollar a barrel. _Q._ Then on this production you would have received $6,000,000 a year, and the railroad companies an additional sum of $1,500,000; in other words, under your arrangement the public would have been put to an additional expense of $7,500,000 a year. _A._ What public do you refer to? They would have had to pay it in Europe. By Mr. Negley. _Q._ Were there not at the same time combinations upon the part of producers to affect the price of oil in the market?