The Baltimore and Ohio, which had again commenced to carry the product of those Pittsburgh refineries which received their crude oil through the Columbia Conduit Company, was in a similar manner forced to reject their freights. The pipe line, whose value was thus almost entirely destroyed, was soon after sold to the Standard Oil Company. This company had now an almost complete monopoly of the oil business of the United States, and still it was not satisfied. It appears that some of the producers of crude oil had been in the habit of shipping a part of their product in spite of the advantages which the Standard had through its rebates. To prevent even these shipments, or rather to exact another tribute from railroad stockholders, the American Transfer Company, one of the auxiliaries of the Standard Oil Trust, in 1878, demanded and received from the Pennsylvania road a "commission" of 20 cents a barrel on all shipments of petroleum _made by any_ shipper. It had been shown to the satisfaction of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company that similar commissions, ranging from 20 to 35 cents a barrel, were being paid by the New York Central and Erie roads. When, in 1879, an effort was made to establish a pipe line from the oil regions to the seaboard, nothing was left undone by the trunk lines to thwart the enterprise. The new company finally succeeded in making connection with a railway which had no part in the pool, and there was some hope that under this arrangement competition might at least be maintained at some points. The Standard Company again appealed to the trunk lines to protect it against injury by competition and obtained from them a special rate of 20 cents per barrel, which rate was even reduced to 15 cents per barrel two months later. Against such a rate it was impossible to compete, and after a short struggle the new line found itself compelled to sell its works to the Standard. To crown its monopoly, the Standard Oil Company finally bought of the New York Central and Erie roads their terminal facilities for the transportation of oil, and thereby made it virtually impossible for them to transport oil for any of its few remaining competitors. Mr. Josiah Lombard, part owner of the New York refinery, stated in 1879 before the investigating committee of the legislature of New York that in 1878 he had requested the Erie Company to transport for him 100 cars of crude oil from Carrollton to New York; that he had called upon Mr. Vilas, the general freight agent of the company, in person, but had never been able to obtain the cars, though the oil had been held in Carrollton three or four months ready to be loaded. This gentleman also testified that he had found it impossible to obtain cars from the New York Central, and that the company's general freight agent had informed him that the road did not own and could not furnish any oil cars.