Cincinnati, Ohio, to Atlanta and Social Circle, Ga.; and that the only complaint they made as to those rates was, that they were higher than the rate to Augusta, Ga.

VI.

Respondents suppose it to be true that the old Western and Atlantic Railroad Company, whose charter expired December 27, 1890, filed its answer to said petition, and that Exhibit B to the petition in this case is a copy of said answer.

VII.

It is true that an answer was filed in the name of the Georgia Railroad Company to said petition, and Exhibit C to the petition in this case is a copy of said answer. Respondents here adopt the allegations of said answer as a part of this answer.

VIII.

Respondents suppose it to be true that the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company filed its answer to said petition, and that Exhibit D to the petition in the case is a copy of said answer.

IX.

Respondents suppose it to be true that said Interstate Commerce Commission, on the 21st day of February, 1890, made an order, and that Exhibit E to the petition is a copy of said order.

Respondents were furnished with a copy of said order some time between the 21st day of February and the 21st day of March, 1890.

X.

Respondents have no knowledge, information, or belief as to whether said proceedings were continued from time to time until June 3, 1890; nor as to whether the said James & Mayer Buggy Company, or said Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, or the old Western and Atlantic Railroad Company, or either of them, appeared by their respective officers or attorneys before said Commission on June 3, 1890. No officer or attorney of the Georgia Railroad Company or of these respondents appeared on that occasion.

XI.

Respondents deny that it appeared to said Commission that respondents had violated, in any respect, the provisions of the act of Congress entitled, "An act to regulate commerce."

Respondents deny that said Commission duly or legally determined the matters or things in controversy between said parties.

Respondents suppose it to be true that said Commission on or about June 29, 1891, made a report in writing in respect thereof, and that Exhibit F to the petition is a copy of said report. A copy of said report was furnished to respondents some time prior to July 3, 1891.

XII.

Respondents suppose it to be true that said Commission formulated an order or notice in relation to the matters and things stated and charged in said petition. But respondents deny that said order was duly made, or that it was made agreeably to the requirements of the statute in such cases made and provided, or that it now remains in force or effect. Respondents suppose that it has never been vacated, set aside, altered, modified, or changed in any respect by said Commission; they suppose that it is now on file in the office of said Commission; and they suppose that exhibit G to the petition is a copy of said order. Respondents were furnished with a copy of said order on or about July 3, 1891. The charter of the old Western and Atlantic Railroad Com pany having expired before said order was made, and the proceedings not having been revived, said order was void as to said company; and being joint in its nature, said order was also void as to respondents.

XIII.

Respondents suppose it to be true that the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, and the defendant now known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company, have not ceased or desisted from the acts wrongfully called violation of law, and set forth in said report and order of said Commission.

So far as these respondents are concerned, they will state that on July 3, 1891, E. R. Dorsey, general freight agent of said Georgia Railroad Company, issued a circular to its connections, earnestly requesting them that thereafter, in issuing bills of lading to local stations on said Georgia railroad, no rates be inserted east of Atlanta, except to Athens, Gainesville, Washington, Milledgeville, Augusta or points beyond. Neither before nor since the date of said circular have these respondents operating said Georgia Railroad been in any way parties to such through rates, if any, as may have been quoted, from Cincinnati or other western points to any of the strictly local stations on said Georgia Railroad. The stations excepted in said circular are not strictly local stations. Both before and since the date of said circular respondents have received at Atlanta east-bound freight destined to strictly local stations on the Georgia Railroad, and have charged full local rates to such stations; said rates being such as they were authorized to charge by the Georgia Railroad Commission. Said rates are reasonably low, and are charged to all persons alike, without discrimination. A true copy of said circular is here filed as Schedule I to this answer.

XIV.

Respondents deny that they or either of them have been unmindful of their duty, or of any legal decision or determination of said Commission; or that they have through their officers, servants or attorneys, or otherwise, disregarded, or set at naught, the lawful authority of said Commission; or that they have willfully or knowingly, or at all, violated or disobeyed any lawful order of said Commission; or that they have neglected or refused to comply with any lawful order of said Commission at Social Circle, Augusta, or Atlanta, Ga., or elsewhere. As to what the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company may have done, or failed to do, respondents have no knowledge or information except as hereinafter stated.

XV.

Respondents are informed and believe that since July 20, 1891, the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company continued to receive at Cincinnati, Ohio, for transportation, buggies and carriages in less than carloads, and other articles classified as first-class freight, consigned to Social Circle and other strictly local stations on the Georgia Railroad; that said Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company issues its own bills of lading at Cincinnati for such articles, and guarantees to shipper that the total rate from Cincinnati to said strictly local stations shall not exceed $1.07 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Atlanta, plus respondents' local rates, whatever they may be to such strictly local stations.

The through rate of $1.07 from Cincinnati to Atlanta is made by agreement and arrangement between said Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company and the defendant, now known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company; and it is not higher than the rate charged by other lines of transportation which compete with those lines for business between Cincinnati and Atlanta. The Georgia Railroad does not compete for business between Cincinnati and Atlanta, and therefore it is not consulted in regard to the through rates made between those points. It has no voice in making them, and does not participate in their division.

Respondent is bound by law to furnish copies of the local tariffs of the Georgia Railroad to anyone who may desire them, and the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, with one of those tariffs in its possession, can readily ascertain what are the local rates to any of the strictly local stations on the Georgia Railroad; and by adding such rates to $1.07 (the through rate from Cincinnati to Atlanta), it can easily see what will be the total rate from Cincinnati to each of said strictly local stations, and can safely guarantee a total rate accordingly.

Respondent can not possibly prevent the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacie Railway Company, or any other railway company, from guaranteeing total rates, which are in part based upon the local rates of the Georgia Railroad; nor can respondents refuse to carry freight because others may have guaranteed total rates in regard to them. But respondents are no party to any such guaranties, and they charge their full local rates to all strictly local stations, without the least regard to any guaranties that others may or may not have made.

Respondents' local rates on buggies and carriages, in less than carloads, and on other first-class freight from Atlanta to Social Circle (a strictly local station) is 30 cents per 100 pounds, which, added to the through rate of $1.07 from Cincinnati to Atlanta, makes the total through and local rate $1.37 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Social Circle.

Respondents aver that the through rate of $1.07 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Atlanta is fixed by active competition between various transportation lines, and is reasonably low; the local rate of 30 cents per 100 pounds from Atlanta to Social Circle, is fixed by the Georgia Railroad Commission, and is reasonably low.

Respondent's connection with all such shipments begins for the first time at Atlanta and ends at Social Circle, both of which places are in the State of Georgia. In transporting such shipments from Atlanta to Social Circle, they remain all the time in the State of Georgia, and respondents, therefore, submit that in their connection with such shipments they are not subject to the act of Congress to regulate commerce.

XVI.

It is true that since July 20, 1891, the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company has continued to receive at Cincinnati, for transportation, buggies and carriages in less than car loads, and other articles classified as first-class freight, consigned to Augusta, Ga.; that said Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company issues bills of lading at Cincinnati for such articles and guarantees to shippers that the through rate from Cincinnati to Augusta shall not exceed $1.07 per 100 pounds.

Said rate of $1.07 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Augusta is made by agreement and arrangement between said Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, the defendant, known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company and respondents, operating the Georgia Railroad; and said rate is forced upon them by other transportation lines which can compete with them by carrying similar freights from Cincinnati to Augusta, and by other transportation lines which do compete by carrying similar freights to Augusta, from Baltimore, Md., and other Eastern cities.

At Baltimore and other Eastern cities there exist large manufactories of buggies, carriages, and other vehicles, which, with other articles classified as first-class freight, are carried from Baltimore and other Eastern cities at such rates that, if the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, the defendants, now known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company, and respondents operating the Georgia Railroad, were to charge more than $1.07 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Augusta, no freight of that character would be shipped from Cincinnati to Augusta over the Georgia Railroad; and Baltimore and other Eastern cities would drive Cincinnati and other Western cities out of the Augusta market.

Respondents aver that there are various transportation lines which compete for business between Baltimore and other Eastern cities on the one side and Augusta on the other side. Some of those lines are all rail, some of them are all water, and some of them are part water and part rail lines. The competition thus produced by those lines makes the rate to Augusta from Baltimore and other Eastern cities as low as it is; and the lines operating from Cincinnati and other Western cities through Georgia to Augusta are forced to meet or approximate the rate from Baltimore and other Eastern cities to Augusta or retire from all that kind of business.

Respondents are advised and insist that it was not the intention of the act to regulate commerce to destroy the commerce between Cincinnati and Augusta; nor to drive Cincinnati and other Western cities out of the Augusta market; nor to give to Baltimore and other Eastern cities a monopoly of that market; nor to deprive the Augusta market of the benefit of competition between Cincinnati and other Western cities on the one side and Baltimore and other Eastern cities on the other side. Respondents are further advised and insist that it was not the intention of said act to prevent the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company, the defendant, known as the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company, and respondents operating the Georgia Railroad, from forming a through line from Cincinnati to Augusta, nor from carrying through freights over that line upon such through rates as may be necessary to meet or approximate the rates to Augusta from Baltimore and other Eastern cities.

XVII.

Respondents admit that the distance from Cincinnati to Social Circle is shorter than the distance from Cincinnati to Augusta. They admit that freight carried from Cincinnati to Augusta is carried over the same lines and in the same direction as freight which is carried from Cincinnati to Social Circle. They admit that the aggregate or total of the through rate from Cincinnati to Atlanta, added to the local rate from Atlanta to Social Circle, is greater than the through rate from Cincinnati to Augusta. But respondents aver that freights carried from Cincinnati to Augusta are not carried under substantially similar circumstances and conditions as freight carried from Cincinnati to Social Circle. Social Circle is a strictly local station on the Georgia Railroad. No rival transportation lines reach that point, while at Augusta there exists the competition above referred to; and the fact that competition exists at one point and does not exist at another, creates not only a substantial but a controlling dissimilarity between the circumstances and conditions under which freight is carried to those points respectively.

XVIII.

In the division of the through rate of $1.07 per 100 pounds from Cincinnati to Augusta, respondents, operating the Georgia Railroad, receive only 28.4 cents per 100 pounds for transportation from Atlanta to Augusta. This is a low rate for the service rendered, but is all that respondents can get. Respondents carry at that rate at a slight profit, and it is to the benefit of the public, as well as of respondents, that respondents should be allowed to retain their source of revenue.

Respondents would much prefer to so increase the through rate from Cincinnati to Augusta that the proportion of it belonging to the Georgia Railroad would amount to 64 cents per 100 pounds, which is the local first-class rate allowed by the Georgia railroad commissioners between Atlanta and Augusta. But it is impossible to get the connections of the Georgia Railroad to allow it any such proportion of said through rate; nor could these connections afford to do so in justice to themselves, considering the relative mileage of the different roads forming the route.

The only way to increase the amount to be realized by the Georgia Railroad from said through rate is to increase said through rate itself, which is impossible so long as water competition exists at Augusta.

If respondents are forced to charge no higher local rates to the strictly local stations on the Georgia Railroad than the proportion which the Georgia Railroad gets of the through rates from Cincinnati and other Ohio River points to Augusta, respondents will be compelled either to retire from such through business or to reduce the local rates to every strictly local station east of Covington, which is east of and distant from Atlanta only 41 miles. To reduce the local rates to all strictly local stations east of Covington from the rates allowed by the Georgia railroad commission to the proportion which that railroad now gets from the through rates from Cincinnati and other Ohio River points to Augusta would reduce respondents' revenue annually not less than $50,000.

Respondents receive from the through business from Cincinnati and other Ohio River points to Augusta not less than $123,000 annually. It is therefore manifest that the Georgia Railroad would be forced to abandon the through business. The effect would be to drive Cincin