"When it is considered, in connection with these figures, that the four general classes were left by the legislature under the same tariffs as had been enforced by the companies, and, as a rule, first class is three times the rate of class D, and third and fourth class materially higher, the evidence seems conclusive that the rates fixed by law would produce an average materially higher than the average of the whole year, stated by Mr. Mitchell at 2-1/2 cents. It seems also probable that, had the rates fixed by this law been applied to the whole business of the line, the interstate as well as the State traffic, it would still have produced a larger average. The latter of course is the proper test. There are little inaccuracies in the material facts as stated by Mr. Mitchell which were pointed out at once. For example: In his tabulated statement of passenger earnings per mile, averaging the gross earnings from transportation of passengers who paid any fare, and omitting the large number who went free, the rate is stated at 3 42-100 cents per mile; then he says: 'The law in question proposes to reduce our passenger rate twenty-five per cent.,' which would have reduced the rate to 2.57 cents per mile, while, the rate fixed by the law complained of was three cents per mile. Then Mr. Mitchell proceeds: 'And our freight rates about the same; thus deducting from our present tariff about twenty-five per cent. of our gross earnings.' It was immediately pointed out that the law only applied to strictly State business; that is, to traffic that originated and ended in the State of Wisconsin. All other traffic was interstate commerce, and could not be controlled by State legislation. The volume of business which would be affected by the law would therefore be comparatively small--estimated at not over ten per cent., of the total traffic of the line. Hence, if the rates fixed by the law were twenty-five per cent. less than the rates the company had been in the habit of collecting (which was denied), it could not possibly have 'deducted from its present tariff' more than two and one-half per cent., instead of twenty-five per cent. as stated by Mr. Mitchell. "It was claimed that the facts were, that the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Company, in its efforts to bankrupt the Lake Superior and Mississippi Company, had many of its interstate rates so low that it had resulted in loss, and that its other rates had been made unreasonably high in order to recoup this loss, and that the State of Wisconsin was compelled to pay a part of the expense of the transportation of favored sections of the State of Minnesota."