214 PHILANDER C. KNOX 



they are true in substance and effect is not seriously disputed 

 in any quarter. The commission also, about the same time, 

 held another investigation, and reported to the department 

 of justice that the six largest meat packing concerns, popu- 

 larly known as the "beef trust," were in a combination with 

 each other and with many great railway lines, whereby they 

 secured large secret concessions in rates for the transportation 

 of their products which enabled them to practically monop- 

 olize the fresh and cured meat industry of the United States. 



Acting upon this information, which disclosed definite 

 and probable facts, bills for injunctions were immediately 

 filed against the principal railroads implicated, to restrain 

 them from giving preference to any shipper in the rates or 

 facilities of transportation. There were instituted by the 

 government in the United States Circuit court at Chicago, six 

 suits in equity against offending railroad companies; and 

 simultaneously, eight additional suits were begun against 

 other railroads at Kansas City. In each instance temporary 

 injunctions were granted, which are still in force, restraining 

 the defendant railroads from paying any rebates or granting 

 any preferences whatever to any shipper, so that all persons 

 should stand on an even footing in respect of transportation 

 over the enjoined roads. 



It was not practicable, of course, nor desirable to bring 

 injunction suits against all the railroads in the United States, 

 but it was believed, in thus proceeding against fourteen of the 

 most influential lines and having the interlocutory decree of 

 two very eminent federal judges to the effect that the facts 

 alleged in the bills entitled the government to the powerful 

 remedy of injunction, that the other carriers would thereafter 

 conform to the law and abstain from illegal practices. How 

 salutary and wholesome the effect has been ask any fair- 

 minded railway manager who is now enabled to adjust his 

 business freed from the stress of competition with lawbreakers 

 or any honest shipper upon the defendant roads. It is be- 

 lieved that with few exceptions since the issuing of these in- 

 junctions the open tariffs have been applied and uniform rates 

 charged to large and small shippers alike. The small grain 

 buyers in the west have resumed operations, the elevators 



