York was with Commodore Vanderbilt, who said to them very frankly at the beginning of their talk: "I told Billy (W. H. Vanderbilt) not to have anything to do with that scheme." The committee in its report said that the Commodore fully agreed with them upon the justice of their claims, and frequently asserted his objections to any combination seeking a monopoly of other men's property and interests. He told them that if what they asked was that the railroads should fix a tariff which, while giving them a paying rate, would secure the oil men against drawbacks, rebates, or variations in the tariff, he would willingly co-operate. The Commodore ended his amiable concessions by reading the committee a letter just received from the South Improvement Company offering to co-operate with the producers and refiners or to compromise existing differences. The oil men told the Commodore emphatically that they would not treat with the South Improvement Company or with anyone interested in it nor would they recognise its existence. And this stand they kept throughout their negotiations though repeated efforts were made by the railroad men, particularly those of the Central system, to persuade them to a compromise.
At the meeting with the officials of the Erie and the Atlantic and Great Western the committee was incensed by being offered a contract similar to that of the South Improvement Company—on consideration that the original be allowed to stand. It seemed impossible to the railroad men that the oil men really meant what they said and would make no terms save on the basis of no discriminations of any kind to anybody. They evidently believed that if the committee had a chance to sign a contract as profitable as that of the South Improvement Company, all their fair talk of "fair play"—"the duty of the common carrier" — "equal chance to all in transportation"—would at once evaporate. They failed utterly at first to comprehend that the Oil War of 1872 was an uprising
[ 91 ]
