HOW FALSE CHARGES WERE MADE 



House of Representatives there were dis- 

 closed many strange matters, and among them 

 this practice of the switching charge just 

 referred to. News of it was received in some 

 quarters with amazement, and in others with 

 denunciations, as of a thing no better than 

 Mr. Fagin's "kinchin lay." Nevertheless, 

 it had grown to the intrenched condition of 

 a vested right. It consisted of a uniform 

 charge in the settlements between commission 

 houses and their country customers, of $1 .50 

 on each car of grain for the alleged switching 

 of that car. The witness is Mr. J. J. McHugh, 

 secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, and 

 Mr. Manahan is examining him. 



MR. MANAHAN. Here is a custom which I charac- 

 terize as a fraudulent custom on the part of the 

 Chamber of Commerce, and I am glad to see that Mr. 

 McHugh has too much self-respect to attempt to de- 

 fend it. I say it is a custom of swindling the shipper. 

 For years, without any regard to justice, the Chamber 

 of Commerce members have soaked the shipper $1.50 

 in thousands of cases where they did not pay it [the 

 switching charge] at all. 



THE ACTING CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE. We 

 would like to have this question plainly answered. 

 Do you consider this to be* a fraud? 



MR. McHuGH. I said no. That answers the ques- 

 tion. I do not wish to pass upon the general propriety 

 of the practice. I do not think it is a fraud. That is 

 my opinion. 



THE ACTING CHAIRMAN. Will you explain if the 

 man that ships 100 cars and pays $1.50 switching 



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