"Since Mr. Rice commenced shipping by water to Little Rock;" "the average price independent of competition in Texas"--these are telltale phrases. Where the combination was "independent of competition" the price was one-third greater. The committee of Congress which investigated trusts in 1889 gathered a great deal of sworn evidence--the details of which remained uncontradicted, and which were met only by general statements like those quoted at the head of this chapter--showing how extortionate prices had been charged until competition appeared, that in all cases a war of extermination had been made upon those competitors, and that when their business was destroyed prices were put up again. Losses in competitive wars were merely investments from which to draw dividends in perpetuity. The "cheapness" of the combination followed the cheapness of competitors, and was merely a feint, one of the approaches in a siege to overcome the inner citadel of cheapness, a strategic cheapness to-day on which to build dearness forever. This battle of prices is shown in a table covering fifty towns in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, for three to five years. The appearance of competitive oil, for instance, cut the prices of oil from 15 cents a gallon down to 10 in Paris, Texas; from 25 to 15 in Calvert, Texas; from 22 cents to 10 in Austin, Texas; from 16 to 5 in Little Rock, Arkansas--evidently a war price; from 16 to 8-1/2 in Huntsville, Alabama; from 16 to 8 in Memphis, Tennessee, and so on.[615] The committee of Congress submit pages of evidence of the reimposition of high prices the moment competition was killed off. If the combination found a rival dealer out of oil for only a day it "popped the prices up 3-1/2 cents."[616] "One day," wrote one of the dealers, "oil is up to 20 cents and over, and when any person attempts to import here, other than the vassals 'of the oil combination,' it is put down to 7 cents a gallon."[617]