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THE STORY OF ERIE 457
rate crude oil was charged from the mouth of the wells a
voluntary haul of 300 miles for nothing.
Previous to this, in 1S72, during the Watson administration,
the Erie had agreed to pay a rebate to the South Improvement
Company, of which the Standard Oil Company was the
successor, on all oil shipped, and if any competitor got the
same rate, the same reduction was to be made on the net rate
of the South Improvement Company, the rates being thus
managed so that the rivals would be compelled to pay full
rates, or always more than the South Improvement Company.
August 1, 1S75, the Erie agreed to let the Standard Oil
Company have the lowest net rate to other parties, and to
pay the Standard 10 per cent, rebate on all shipments. 'Phe
Erie, in 1877, joined hands with the Standard Oil Company
to fightthe Pennsylvania Railroad Company and fori eit to
close out the Empire Transportation Company, a rival to the
Standard Oil Company as a shipper and refiner of oil. 'Phe
fight lasted until October, when the Standard and its railroad
allies won, the great oil company not only crushing its rival,
but gaining control of the terminal facilities for oil at Philadelphia
and Baltimore, and becoming dictator to the railroads.
In 1S79, to harass the Tidewater Pipe Line Company, another
projected rival of the Standard, the P>ie and the other railroads
reduced the rates on oil as low as fifteen cents a barrel
to the Standard, from the open rate of $1.15, and allowed a
mileage that reduced the amount received by the railroads to
ten cents a barrel.
It was also elicited that Jay Gould made a twenty-year
lease, P"ebruary 1, 1870, with the National Stock Yard Company
at Weehawken to handle all the live stock transported
by the Company. Charles S. Robinson was president of the
Stock Yard Company, and John H. Comer, Fisk's private
secretary, was secretary. The same day Gould made an be kept informed by annual statements of the condition of
agreement that the PJrie Railway Company would advance the cars. If the Company made default in payment of its
such money from time to time as the National Stock Yard
Company might require for the purpose of completing and
rent, or any part of it, for thirty days after it was due, the
Trust Compiany hatl power to remove the cars from the possession
fitting its yards for use. of the Railroad Company, the Company to haul them
Not more than $100,000 were to be
advanced, for which the Railway Company accepted first to any point on its line designated by the Trust as most convenient
mortgage bonds issued by the Stock Ward Company. This
for its further disposal of them.
company also leased stock yards at Deposit, N. Y., and Buffalo.
By an order of Judge Donahue, July 29, 1S75, Receiver
Jewett was permitted to cancel the contract with the National
Stock Yard Company by purchasing all the outstanding stock
held by Charles Robinson, at the rate of £50,000 worth of the
'Phe declared purpose of this Trust was to furnish needed
rolling stock to the Erie, which the Company had not the
means to purchase outright, and on terms easy and economical,
but the conditions of the arrangement proved to be so
much the contrary that in 1884, when the Jewett administration
came to an end, the Paie was in default to the Trust
first mortgage bonds of the Stock Yard Company for 3,623
shares, also buying 1,822 shares of the Stock Yard Company Company $5,666,000, and the Company is to-day paying off
held by the widow of James Fisk, Jr., for $5,000 of the first that debt, which is for cars supplied to the Erie, some of
mortgage bonds of that company. January 28, 1S76, Receiver
Jewett leased all the Company's stock yards and
facilities to John R. MrPherson, of New Jersey (United States
Senator), who took charge of the unloading, 1 are, and handling
of the live stock transported by the Erie, which paid him
yardage charges of forty-five tents per head for tattle, six
t cuts for sheep, and eight for hogs, and from S45 to S50 per
ton lor hay, besides Jo per car for unloading.
'Phe arrangement the Erie had with the Car Trust of New-
York was also gone into by this investigating committee.
'Phis Car Trust was formed in 1.S7S. 'Phe parties toit were
John Lowber Welsh, of Philadelphia; Homer Ramsdell, of
Newburgh, N. X. ; lohn A. Hardenbergh and George R.
Blanchard, of New York, and ('lenient R. Woodin, of Berwick,
Pa., of the firstpart, and the New York, Pake l^rie and
Western Railroad Company of the second part. Welsh and
Ramsdell were Directors in the latter company ; Hardenbergh
was its purchasing agent, and Blanchard was its firstvicepresident.
Woodin was a car-builder. 'Phe capital stock of
the Car Trust was $3,000,000. Its purpose was the buying,
selling, and leasing railroad cars, to be sold or leased to companies
owning or operating railroads. 'Phe business of the
Trust was to be conducted by trustees, who were Edwin D.
Morgan and Alfred W. Morgan, of New York. 'Phe special
business of the Trust seems to have been the leasing of cars
to the New York, Pake Erie and Western Railroad Company,
and had leased that Company 3,000 freight cars and 500
gondola cars on August 1, 1879, f°r ^ve years, the rent for
them, which was to be 6 per cent, of the principal of all the
shares of the Trust Company then outstanding, besides
#69,730, was to be paid in quarterly payments. The Railroad
Company was compelled by the lease to keep the cars in
good repair, replace at its own cost all that were destroyed, and
keep them branded, " Car Trust of New York," the Trust to
them nearly a score of years ago, and which were long since
worn out and discarded.