"Then they"--the pipe lines--"were anxious to get good paying rates,"[206] so that they could make a good thing out of the business of their own pipe and of the Tidewater which they had guaranteed $500,000 a year. The advent of the independent Tidewater had brought rates down. The restoration of exclusive control by its capture put rates up. But it was not enough for the oil combination to advance their own rates. It must induce the railroads to do the same. The railroads had furnished the means for the acquisition of both pipes, and they must now be got to drive business away from themselves to these competing oil railways. This would seem to be a delicate matter to achieve, but there was no trouble about it. "It is our pleasure to try to make oil cheap,"[207] the president of the oil trust told Congress, but it did not use its new facilities to take in hand at reduced cost the carriage of all oil, and give the industry the economic advantage of the pipe-line idea. Quite the contrary. It united with the railroads to increase the cost. Under this new blow the independent refiners and producers whom the Tidewater had been built to keep afloat grounded again. Then the railroads--the Pennsylvania especially--repented of what they had done to these their oldest customers, and sent ambassadors to them to renew the broken promises of 1872, that if they would rebuild they should forever have equal rates and fair treatment. One of the highest officials of the Pennsylvania was sent to them to say: We recognize our error in permitting your refineries to be abandoned and the traffic destroyed. We wish to build up and maintain independent refining in the oil regions. We will give you every encouragement. We will insure you equal rates, on which you can ship and live.[208] These invitations and guarantees were repeated and pressed. They were renewed by the officials of the Erie also: "You need have no hesitation in building up your business," said the officials of the Erie; "You shall have living rates."[209] The independents listened and believed. They rebuilt their works and prospered.[210] This meant the return of cheapness--cheapness of transportation over the railroads, to enable the refiners they had invited back to life to compete in the market--cheapness of light. Thereupon, incredible as it seems, the Pennsylvania and the other railroads were influenced to declare war again upon the men who had reinvested their money and their life energy in response to these solicitations. This new war began with a secret contract, in 1885, for an advance in rates against the independent refiners, who, in trustful reliance on the pledged faith of the railroads, had developed their capacity to 2,000,000 barrels a year.[211]