Q. The testimony is that about six million barrels a year are shipped; the provisions of this contract are that a rebate to that company, supposing the maximum to have been charged, should be over a dollar a barrel.
A. No such thing as charging maximum rates was ever contemplated. The contract on its face says it is a cardinal principle that the gross rates shall be kept as near the net rates as possible.
Q. Suppose it had been kept at the gross rates, your company would then have received over six million ?
A. That would be altogether different from the principles on which the contract was based.
Q. If the gross rates which the contract allows had been paid, however, the South Improvement Company would have received a rebate of over six million dollars?
A. Certainly, supposing such an absurdity.
Q. Why did you put such an absurdity in the contract?
A. It is not in the contract, as I stated.
By Mr. Hambleton.
Q. It is the contract as a maximum?
A. But it is also expressly stated that the rates shall be kept as near to net rates as possible.
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