Central, issued a new oil tariff which discriminated greatly in favor of
the oil brought by the United Pipe Line to the refineries. Up to that
time this company had done from 25 to 30 per cent. of the total business
of the various pipe lines. Within one year after the adoption of the new
tariff it did fully 80 per cent. of the entire business. This forced the
independent lines either to sell out to the Standard or to suspend
business, for the latter's rebate was larger than their toll. The oil
tariff of the Pennsylvania Central compelled the independent Pittsburgh
refiners to ship their refined oil over that company's line, if they
would avail themselves of the rebate which it granted on the rates for
the transportation of crude oil to Pittsburgh. The evident purpose and
the effect of such a tariff was to prohibit oil shipments over the
Baltimore and Ohio. Had this road made ever so reasonable a tariff, the
combined charges for the transportation of the crude petroleum from the
oil regions to Pittsburgh by the Pennsylvania Central, and for that of
the refined oil to the sea coast by the Baltimore and Ohio, would still
have been prohibitive in competition with the special transit rates
granted to the Standard Oil Company. As a remedy it was proposed to
organize a new pipe line, it being believed that the crude oil could be
brought to Pittsburgh by that line, refined there, shipped to the
seaboard by the Baltimore and Ohio, and sold there at as good or even a
better profit than the product of the Standard, notwithstanding the
favors received by the latter from the allied trunk lines. This movement
resulted in the creation of the Columbia Conduit Company, which at once
proceeded to lay its pipes from the oil wells to Pittsburgh. Under the
laws of the State of Pennsylvania it became necessary for this company
to obtain the permission of property-holders to lay the pipes through
their lands. Consent was everywhere readily given, and the pipes were
laid without hindrance until the track of the Pennsylvania Railroad was
reached, within a few miles of the Pittsburgh refineries. This company
peremptorily refused to let the pipes be laid under its track. The pipe
line company after some delay contrived a way to obviate the difficulty.
It laid its pipes on each side of the road as close to the track as it
could without trespassing against the legal rights of the Pennsylvania
Central, and then conveyed the oil from one side of the tra