The most outstanding objection which the people had to trusts was based on their treatment of independent competitors. For years it was the common practice of the Standard Oil Company, as we have already seen, to secure lower freight rates than its competitors, thus placing them at a decided disadvantage in the matter of competing with the trust in the sale of oil products. Other combinations, notably the sugar trust, likewise secured discriminatory rates from the railroads. Second, the trusts in an effort to crush competition had a practice of lowering prices in competitive markets, and of recouping themselves by higher prices in the markets where they had no competition. Both these practices the people condemned on the ground of fair play. They demanded that the trusts, while they might be entitled to the economies that arose from conducting business on a large scale, should not use unfair methods to crush their small rivals.