in car-load lots in barrels. On the contrary, it alleges that the rates aforesaid are just and reasonable, and are fixed and adjusted fairly and equitably; that the circumstances and conditions under which such transportation is made in barrels in less than car-load lots, in barrels in car-load lots, and in tank cars are essentially dissimilar and unlike, and warrant and justify the difference in rates and charges which has been made in the tariffs of the respondent.

3d. It admits that it has established and published a schedule of rates and charges, as alleged in the 5th complaint in said petition, and that it has provided that a minimum carload in barrels shall be sixty barrels, and alleges that the rates and charges for less than car-load lots are fixed and established by the tariffs and schedules, a copy of which is attached to said petition, and not other or different.

It alleges that the capacity of respondent's cars, in which said commodities are transported in barrels, is ample for the proper loading and transportation of sixty barrels and upwards, and that, if properly loaded, the placing of some of the barrels upon others does not produce leakage or dumage to the barrels.

It denies that the regulation fixing sixty barrels as a minimum car-load is unjust or unreasonable, or that the charge per barrel at less than car-load rates on the full floor capacity of the car, when that is less than sixty barrels, is excessive, unjust or unreasonable.

4th. It admits that it has established and published a schedule of rates and charges for the transportation of petroleum and its products in bulk in tank cars, as averred in the 6th complaint in said petition, and that it transports a large quantity thereof at the said rates in tank cars. It alleges that it does not now and never has owned and supplied to any shipper any of such tank cars since the year 1880, or the apparatus, facilities, and appliances needful to unload said commodities transported and to be transported in said tank cars; and that none of the complainants has ever applied to or requested this respondent to furnish such cars, or such apparatus, facilities, or appliances for their use; nor has respondent refused to furnish the same; that all tank cars hauled over respondent's road have been furnished by shippers who own and maintain the same, and the facilities, apparatus, and needful appliances for loading and unloading the same; and that respondent has allowed to such shippers for the use of such tank cars a reasonable sum, viz., a mileage of three-fourths of a cent a mile for each mile each such car is hauled over respondent's road by this respondent; and is, and ever has been, ready and willing to afford said complainants the same facil

ities, and upon the same terms receive and haul tank cars for them and transport for them therein petroleum and its products in bulk, and has never refused to do so.

It denies that the less amount it charges for such transportation in tank cars in combination with said mileage allowance constitutes or is an undue or unreasonable preference and advantage to the said traffic in bulk in tank cars over the said traffic in barrels, or is an undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage to said traffic in barrels.

5th. It admits, in answer to the 7th complaint contained in said petition, that the Standard Oil Co. is a corporation engaged in business, and ships said commodities in tank cars, as alleged; and that said Standard Oil Co. also ships over respondent's railroad, from Cleveland to places within and without the State of Ohio, petroleum and its products in barrels in car-load lots and in less than car-load lots. It admits that the several schedules of rates and charges attached to said petition are those referred to in said petition, and are correct and true, and that petroleum and its products are, by the classification adopted by this respondent and in force on its road, classed as third-class freight and charged accordingly upon a computation of four hundred pounds for each barrel when transported in barrels in less than car-load lots.

The respondent denies each and every allegation in said 7th complaint contained which is not herein specifically answered or admitted.

Statement of

facts found.

And respondent prays that the petition may be dismissed. The defendant has established and published a schedule of rates and charges for the transportation of petroleum and its products in car-load lots in barrels, in less than car-load lots in barrels, and in tank cars from points to points named in the complaint at the rates therein specified. According to these schedules, it is provided that a minimum car-load in barrels shall be sixty barrels.

There are as many as twenty or more different kinds of oils produced at Cleveland. These oils are divided into two general classes, namely, illuminating oils and lubricating oils. The bulk of lubricating oils is worth in the market at Cleveland from 25 to 75 cents per gallon according to quality, and illuminating oils are worth in the same market from 7 to 11 cents per gallon according to quality. There is a very large market for lubricating oils in Kansas, Nebraska, and other northwestern States, though these oils are also shipped in large quantities to other portions of the country. The illuminating oils find a general market in this country. Lubricating oils are used chiefly in the late spring and during the

warm weather in the summer and early fall, and illuminating oils are used principally in the winter and during the cold weather. Shipments of these oils are made chiefly at and for the seasons when they are most used, respectively.

Cleveland, Ohio, a station on the line of defendant's railroad, situated upon Lake Erie, is the initial point of shipment of nearly all the petroleum oil and products thereof carried on defendant's road. The quantity of such oil and products shipped over defendant's road in a westerly direction from Cleveland is at the rate of eight hundred thousand barrels annually, and eastward about six thousand barrels annually. Nearly all of this oil and its products are refined and manufactured at Cleveland. Petroleum and its products herein referred to are, by the classification adopted by the defendant and in force upon its line of railroad when transported in barrels in less than carload lots, classed as third-class and charged accordingly upon a computation of four hundred pounds weight for each and every barrel. When shipped in carload lots, whether in tanks or in barrels in stock-cars, it is practically sixth-class.

The Standard Oil Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Ohio and has its principal office in the city of Cleveland, in said State, and is engaged in the business of refining, manufacturing, and dealing in petroleum and its products on an extensive scale. It ships these commodities, to a large extent, in tank-cars from the said eity of Cleveland to places that are without the State of Ohio at the rates prescribed in defendant's schedules for tank-cars. About eighty per cent of said Standard Oil Company's west-bound and less than three per cent of its east-bound shipments over defendant's road, are in tank cars furnished by said Standard Oil Company, which also furnishes its own facilities and appliances for loading and unloading. The mileage allowed by defendant to all shippers furnishing tank cars or stock-cars. for shipments of oil upon its road in carload lots is three fourths of one cent per mile per car for the use of these cars. This is the usual mileage paid by the railroads for the use of cars belonging to others. All of said tank-cars after being unloaded at their destination, are returned as a rule to Cleveland, empty, by the defendant, and the mileage of threefourths of a cent per mile is paid on such return, as is usual in other cases.

The petitioners, Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle, the Excelsior Oil Company, and J. W. Fawcett, three of the complainants, also ship oil and its products, in part, over defendant's road to some extent in tank-cars owned and furnished by themselves, and they are allowed the same mileage therefor

as above stated, and said tank-cars are likewise returned empty and mileage paid on said return as aforesaid. From many points, but notably Chicago, the chief point to which oil is shipped from Cleveland, the stock-cars have return loads a considerable portion of the time. The other petitioners own no tank-cars.

Oil shipped in bulk in tank-cars or in carload lots in barrels. is loaded and unloaded in each instance by the shipper and consignee, and the carrier pays the switching charges in order to obtain this freight. Oil transported in less than carload lots is loaded and unloaded by the railway company. The weight of an empty oil barrel in summer when dry is 63 pounds; in winter it is 65 pounds. The average weight of oil in each barrel would be, if the barrel were full, about 335 pounds; but as there is some space allowed in each barrel for expansion, the usual average rate of oil in a barrel is esti mated at 325 pounds. Bulk oil is usually unloaded from the tanks at the stations into receiving tanks, but occasionally is unloaded by pipes into barrels. The defendant provides no such receiving tanks at its stations. The Standard Oil Co. has receiving tanks at the stations named in the schedule thereof mentioned in the complaint and at other points of importance, generally, where it does business; and these receiving tanks are furnished and maintained at its own expense and upon its own premises. Oil in barrels, whether in carload lots or in less than carload lots, is transported over defendant's road westwardly exclusively in cattle and stock cars. Oil in tank-cars is rated at 315 pounds per barrel.

The average weight of a tank-car is 22,100 pounds, which, with the average of ninety barrels, that being the lowest minimum hauled in tank cars on this road, makes 28,350 pounds, or a total of 50.450 pounds, for which the defendant receives from Cleveland to Chicago, a distance of 357 miles, $34.20, being at the rate of $1.36 per ton. The average weight of a stock-car is 21,046 pounds, which, with sixty barrels of oil, that being about the average carriage, weighing 24,000 pounds, makes a total weight of 45,046 pounds, and the earnings upon such a car from Cleveland to Chicago over defendant's road is $30, being $1.33 per ton. The tank-car, taking the gross weight of the car and the oil, pays slightly more to the defendant per ton than the stock-car with the full load. The average number of barrels on west-bound shipments of oil from Cleveland over defendant's road in stock-cars is 61, but on east-bound shipments the number per car runs more than this, and sometimes reaches as much as eighty barrels per car. The average number of barrels of oil transported in a tank-car is about ninety-six. The smallest of these tank-cars

carry about ninety and the largest about 120 barrels per car and they are constantly being increased in size.

The complainant's aggregate shipments west-bound over the Lake Shore road are at the rate of 36,000 barrels annually, and east-bound about 3200 barrels annually. Between April 5, 1887, and October 1, 1887, the complainant's shipments of oil over the several roads from Cleveland were distributed as follows:

More than one fourth of the shipments made by those of the petitioners owning tank-cars were made over the Pennsylvania railroad in their own tank-cars. The oil rates upon all the railroads from Cleveland to Chicago are the same.

During the period between April 1 and October 1, 1887, the Standard Oil Co. shipped over defendant's railway in less than carloads in barrels 9824 barrels; in carloads in barrels 75,075, and in tank-cars 319,860 barrels. About thirty-five per cent of these shipments by the Standard Oil Co. in barrels was made to Chicago as compared with its shipments in tanks. During this period the Standard Oil Co. shipped its 75,075 barrels in 1226 car loads in stock-cars and its 319,860 barrels in 3579 tanks, while during the same period the independent refineries shipped 4,633 barrels in 55 tanks in tank-loads. The total number of barrels shipped by the Standard Oil Co. during this period over defendant's road appears to have been 395,919 barrels. During the same period all the other shippers shipped over defendant's road in less than carload lots 8346 barrels. The oil shipped in barrels out of Cleveland during this period in less than carload lots appears to have been an average of between sixteen and seventeen barrels per car west and thirteen and fourfifths barrels per car east.

Since the business of refining oil at Cleveland commenced the business of defendant has changed very much. About ten years ago the volume of its business was east-bound and the returning cars to the west were largely empty. There was very little in the way of loads for stock-cars. The stockcars were thus practically used and nearly altogether for oil. Now the conditions of shipments are largely reversed. Eastbound shipments of live stock on defendant's road are greatly less than they were then, and this decrease has been existing since 1879. In 1879 the shipments from Chicago were 279,