graphical situation at the different terminal points, are all elements of importance bearing upon the relative reasonableness of the respective charges for transportation. 123. The fact that the export rates through Boston, and the rates on merchandise intended for coastwise points east of Portland, and the west-bound rates from Boston, have been made by the carriers the same as corresponding New York rates, in order to put Boston on an equality with New York and other seaboard cities wherever Boston is a competitor with those cities, is not controlling in determining the reasonablness of east-bound Boston local rates on a traffic in which there is no competition by other cities. 124. In view of the longer haul to Boston than to New York; the greater cost of transportation to Boston; the very much greater volume of business to and from New York; the competition by water transportation by the lakes, Erie Canal, and Hudson River, and also by several railroad lines; and the geographical and commercial advantages of New York; the differentials on Boston local rates of 10 cents per 100 pounds on the first and second classes of merchandise, and of 5 cents per 100 ponnds on the four other classes, between New York and Boston, on traffic originating west of Buffalo, have not been shown to be unjust or unreasonable, or to constitute unjust discrimination against Boston. James Pyles & Sons v. The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 465.) 125. By the classification of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association adopted by the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Company on shipments of pearline and common soap from New York to Atlanta, Ga., pearline is in fourth-class freight with a rate of 73 cents per 100 pounds, while common soap is in sixth-class freight with a class rate of 49 cents per 100 pounds, but a "special rate" is given common soap of 33 cents per 100 pounds. Held, That pearline being competitive with common soap, the relative difference between the class rate of pearline and this "special rate" on common soap is too great, and that pearline must be placed in fifth-class freight on shipments from New York to Atlanta by the defendant company, with a rate of 60 cents per 100 pounds, and also in the fifth class in the classification of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association, and, further, that the relative difference in the rates on pearline and common soap in such shipments must not exceed the difference of 60 cents per 100 pounds of pearline and 33 cents on soap. Held further, That on shipments of pearline and common soap, all rail, in the territory to which the classifications of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association applies, the following rates of this association must be maintained by the defendant company, namely: Soap powder: 100 miles 500 miles Common soap: 100 miles 500 miles Cents. per 100 pounds.. 32 .do.... 20 ..do.... 38 Held, That the discrimination made by the "special rate" of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association between pearline and common soap, to the extent now existing on the shipments to which it refers, is unjust and must be discontinued, and while common soap is in its sixth class pearline must be placed in its fifth class. 126. A statement of the grounds of differences in the classification of articles of freight by railroad companies and a discussion of these, by which the conclusions of the Commission are reached, in the classification of pearline when transported all rail on the one hand, or on the other, partly by water and partly by rail, as compared with the transportation of common soap by either mode. W. B. Farrar & Co. v. The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Company and the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 480.) 127. The local rates from Dalton to Knoxville, Johnson City, and Bristol on lumber are not shown to be unreasonable. 128. The joint rates on lumber from Dalton to Roanoke and Lynchburg are shown to be unreasonable, upon the grounds and for the reasons set forth in the report and opinion of the Commission. 129. As a rule, in the transportation of freight by railroads, while the aggregate charge is continually increasing the further the freight is carried, the rate per ton per mile is constantly growing less all the time, making the aggregate charge less in proportion every hundred miles after the first, arising out of the character and nature of the service performed, and the cost of the service; and thus staple commodities and merchandise are enabled to bear the charges of this mode of transportation from and to the most distant portions of the country. 130. The act to regulate commerce, so far from throwing hampering restrictions or obstacles in the way of the operation of this salutary rule, gives it all the benefit and aid of its sanction and safeguards by providing that the carrier shall be entitled to receive a reasonable compensation for the service performed upon open published rates, against which no competitor can take advantage by allowing shippers secret rebates and drawbacks in order to get the business. 131. In the nature of things joint rates on long hauls usually are, and as a rule should be, lower in proportion to distance than local rates on short hauls of the same commodity. Riddle, Dean & Co. v. The Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 490.) 132. Rule stated in reference to applications for rehearings. 133. The Commission will promptly and carefully examine an application for a rehearing with a view to the immediate correction of any error of law or fact found to exist, but will not direct a rehearing involving the expense to parties of appearing before the Commission for a reargument unless satisfied that such a reargument might have the effect of changing the result of what the Commission has already done. 134. The statute is construed as dealing with the substance of things, and as contemplating, as far as this is possible, methods of procedure that are speedy and which come at once to the very right of questions arising in the transportation of persons and freight. 135. Where the relation of any carrier to the matter complained of is such that it is in whole or in part materially responsible for the alleged grievance, and has direct interest in any investigation of the subject matter involved, and the merits of the controversy can not be investigated and determined in the absence of such carrier as a party, then that carrier should be made a party to the proceeding, and if not a party, no relief can be had against it. 136. The report and findings of the Commission upon the evidence relates only to the ascertainment and presentation of all the material facts necessary to fairly and justly present the merits of the controversy, and the Commission does not report evidence which is only cumulative, or which is immaterial or irrelevant, or mere details of evidence already embraced in substantial facts stated, upon which the findings and conclusions of the Commission are made. John D. Heck and L. J. A. Petree v. The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway Company, the Knoxville and Ohio Railroad Company, the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company, the Richmond and West Point Terminal and Warehouse Company, the Coal Creek and New River Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 495.) 137. A railroad company, chartered by the State of Tennessee, owns a short road wholly in that State, but has never owned any rolling stock nor operated its road. The road was used and operated as a means of conducting interstate traffic in coal by companies owning connecting interstate roads. Held, That the short road thus used is one of the facilities and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and the carriers using it are subject to the provisions of the act to regulate commerce. 138. In respect to such traffic the duties of such carriers to the public are the same without respect to ownership, corporate control, the authority or means of its construction. 139. As one of the "instrumentalities of shipment or carriage,” it must be accessible to all interstate shippers on equal and reasonable terms. The public can not be deprived of this right by the separate or joint action of the carriers, and they can not be permitted to use it for purposes of discrimination between mine owners on its line. 140. The claim for pecuniary damages presents a case at common law, in which defendants are entitled to a jury trial. George Rice . The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 503.) The Same Complainant v. The Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company. The Same Complainant v. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company. The Same Complainant v. The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company. The Same Complainant v. The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Company and the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company. The Same Complainant v. The Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad Company. The Same Complainant v. The Newport News and Mississippi Valley Company and the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad Company. The Same Complainant v. The Newport News and Mississippi Valley Company and the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The Same Complainant v. The Illinois Central Railroad Company. 141. When for a special traffic, e. g., the transportation of petroleum oils, a carrier provides rolling stock for one method, but does not provide it for another for which it publishes rates, but the shippers are expected to provide the same, the terms on which such rolling stock is to be provided should be uniform and be published with the rate sheets, and can not lawfully be left to be the subject of bargain and of different terms in the case of different shippers. 142. It is properly the business of a carrier by railroad to supply the rolling stock for the freight he offers or proposes to carry; and if the diversities and peculiarities of traffic are such that this is not always practicable, and consignors are allowed to supply it for themselves, the carrier must not allow its own deficiencies in this particular to be made the means of putting at unreasonable disadvantage those who make use in the same traffic of the facilities it supplies. 143. When two methods for the transportation of an article of merchandise are nominally offered by the carrier, for only one of which it offers rolling stock, and for the other of which the shipper must supply his own rolling stock at considerable expense, it can not be said that the resort to the latter by the shipper is so far a matter of choice that he has no concern with the charges for transportation in the other mode. The man of small means being compelled to make this choice by reason of the carrier's failure to supply rolling stock for the other mode, has a right to insist that the charges by transportation in the two modes shall be relatively just and equal. 144. When oil is transported in tanks permanently affixed to car bodies, the tank is to be considered as part of the car; and for oil transported therein the charge for transportation should be the same by the hundred pounds that the carrier charges for transportation between the same points of barrels filled with like oil and taken in carload lots. The carrier is guilty of unjust discrimination if the shipper in barrels is charged a higher rate. 145. Neither the fact that the shipper in the one case supplies the rolling stock, nor the alleged fact, which is not found sustained, that for the tanks there is a greater probability of return loads, nor the further alleged fact that with barrel shipments there are greater risks to the carrier's property and that which it carries, can justify imposing upon the barrel shipments the greater burden. 146. Under this rule the carrier will be at liberty and will be expected to make to the owner of tank cars a reasonable allowance for their use. 147. When an important question is raised by the pleadings in a case, the determination of which will affect others quite as much as the parties before the Commission, but the parties give their attention almost exclusively to other questions, and neither by the evidence nor in argument supply the Commission with the information to enable it to be understandingly determined, the Commission will decline to decide it, and leave the parties to bring it forward again as they may be advised. Riddle, Dean & Co. v. The New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company and the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 594.) 148. Contracts between railroad companies for the advantageous transaction of business at a given point involve corresponding obligations to the public. 149. Regular patrons are not entitled to preference in the use of equipment of common carriers; the public must be justly and equally served. 150. Obligation of common carriers to transport freight arises upon tender of same for transportation in the usual way, without any special agreement; compensation for the service is secured by a lien upon the goods, except when payment in advance is made. 151. Selection of either goods or customers is forbidden to common carriers; less desirable traffic which is ordinarily the subject of transportation and not dangerous to handle, must be accepted upon reasonable terms, as well as that which is more desirable. 152. It is not a valid excuse for refusal to furnish a fair allotment of a certain class of cars that they can be more profitably employed, and can supply the wants of a larger number of shippers upon another portion of the line. 153. Undue preference found to have been given by defendants, to the prejudice of complainants, upon the facts stated. Riddle, Dean & Co. v. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 608.) 154. A statement of the evidence from which it appears that it was the duty of the Yough Slope mine, its owners and agents, to have inquired of the station agent of the railroad company near by the mine on the 30th day of August, 1887, and on the next day, by which they would have learned that the mine could have obtained cars for the shipment of coal to Arthur & Boylan at Cleveland, Ohio, and they having failed to do this, in consequence of which the Youghiogheny and Ashtabula mines received nearly all these cars for this purpose, without any partiality or preference on the part of the railroad company. Held, upon these facts, that a complaint of unjust discrimination against the Yough Slope mine, and in favor of the Youghiogheny and Ashtabula mines, can not be sustained. 155. Where a complaint is made by a shipper that an unjust discrimination was perpetrated by a railroad company against him at a particular time named, in a case like the present, to rebut the inference arising from circumstances calling for explanation, amongst other evidence the carrier may show that during a long course of business neither it nor any of its agents have ever shown any unfriendly spirit whatever toward the shipper, and that, on the contrary, its agents immediately before the matter complained of made extra exertions in good faith to serve the shipper in obtaining cars for him from the connecting line to which the shipper had to look for such cars. 156. In the absence of some custom and rule of business placing such duty upon the carrier to notify the shipper without inquiry on the part of the latter of the fact that he can then obtain cars for the movement of his freight, it is the duty of the shipper, by reasonable inquiry made to the proper agent of the railroad company, to obtain this information for himself; but in a case like the present, if the carrier took upon itself the duty of actually notifying the Youghiogheny and Ashtabula mines on the 30th of August, 1887, without waiting for any inquiry on their part, that they could get cars, then in like manner it was its duty to have notified the Yough Slope mine at the same time that it could get cars. Held, That, tested by these rules, no case of preference or unjust discrimination is made out by the evidence in favor of the Youghiogheny and Ashtabula mines and against the Yough Slope mine. In the matter of the Tariffs of the Columbus and Western Railway. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 626.) 157. Tariff's not conforming to fourth section criticised. Circumstances stated found not sufficient to warrant deviation from the law. 158. Carriers should bring their tariffs into conformity with the statute without suggestions from the Commission as to details. The La Crosse Manufacturers and Jobbers' Union v. The Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway Company, the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, and the Chicago, Burlington and Northern Railroad Company. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 629.) 159. The fact that the rates of a railroad company are not established on a mileage basis does not necessarily make out their illegality or injustice. 160. A prayer in a petition against a railroad company, that the company be required to make its rates from one terminus to the town from which the petition proceeds and to other towns in the same section, and also from such terminus to the petitioning town and from thence to such other towns, on a uniform and equal mileage basis, can not be granted, the Commission having no power to require the adoption of such a basis. 161. A complaint will not be filed of which no reasonable ground for investigation appears. In the matter of Underbilling. (1 I. C. C. Rep., 633.) 162. Underbilling, a device by which a shipper pays for the transportation of a less quantity of freight than is actually carried, and thereby obtains a reduced rate upon the gross shipment, is forbidden by the act to regulate commerce. 163. Unjust discrimination results from underbilling, in that the favored shipper pays a less sum than is charged others for the same service. 164. Common carriers are bound to exact equality in their service of the public. 165. Organized action by carriers to prevent underbilling commended; their duty to put an end to the practice insisted upon. 166. Carriers should be held, and in turn should hold every agent, responsible for the shipment of goods at exact weights and correctly classified. 167. Commissions paid to soliciting agents when divided with shippers effect a breach of the law. 168. Shippers should be required to extend to carriers the same honesty expected in other commercial transactions. 169. Preferences obtained by underbilling explained, and remedies suggested. 170. Legislation recommended imposing a moderate penalty upon shippers who willfully and fraudulently obtain reduced rates of transportation for their property. John H. Martin and M. H. Martin . The Southern Pacific Company, the Central Pacific Railrond Company, and the Union Pacific Railway Company. (2 I. C. C. Rep., 1.) 171. Mixed carload lots of freight are treated in different ways under the classifications employed in different parts of the country, resulting in much confusion and annoyance to shippers, especially upon traffic passing from one section to another. The immediate adoption of a uniform and reasonable rule urgently recommended. 172. Classification of dried fruits and raisins, both California products, in different classes, taking different rates of freight, works an injustice to shippers. In all matters of classification clearness and simplicity should be aimed at, and irregularities and inconsistencies should be eliminated. 173. Rates obtained by combination, which produce a lower rate than the tariff calls for, are unjust, because they enable an intelligent shipper to obtain an advantage over one who has less information, and they are illegal because they show two rates to the same point, over the same line, at the same time. The tariff rates should not exceed the combination rates in any case. 174. Violation of the fourth section of the act can be accomplished by differences in classification as well as by differences in tariff rates. 175. Canadian competition at the present time does not justify a higher charge from San Francisco to Denver than to Kansas City, it having been withdrawn at the latter point, and the Canadian road now working upon an agreement as to rates with the roads in the United States at all points where it formerly competed. 176. The great distance of Denver from the Missouri River of itself denotes an impropriety in the charges to that point which exceed those to Kansas City. 177. In re Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company (1 I. C. C. Rep., 31) affirmed; and in accordance with the principles the e laid down, the conclusion follows that the greater charge for the shorter haul complained of in the present case can not now be justified. 178. The commission prefers to permit the carriers to work out for themselves all tariff details, and accords a reasonable time for that purpose. Euclid Martin and others, constituting the freight bureau of the Omaha Board of Trade, v. the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, the Union Pacific Railway Company, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway Company, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company, and the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company in Nebraska. (2 I. C. C. Rep., 25.) 179. The principles laid down in the case of Crews v. The Richmond and Danville Railroad Company (1 I. C. C. Rep., 401) restated and reaffirmed. 180. Trade centers of large commercial towns are not, as a matter of right, entitled to have more favorable rates than the smaller towns for which they form distributing centers; and if carriers shall give to such smaller towns rates as favorable as to the larger, the Commission will not interfere. 181. The fact that, under rates which are impartially arranged as between large and small towns, one large distributing center may have an advantage over another in competition for the business of the small towns, does not make out a case of undue preference in favor of the one distributing center as against the other. Impartial rates are not rendered illegal by their effect upon the business of localities. 182. A distributing center, however great or important, can not demand, as a matter of right, that the rates from a common source of supply to more distant and smaller towns shall be made up of the sum of the rate to itself and the rate thence to such smaller towns; but the carriers may make rates from the common source of supply to the smaller towns directly, as single rates; and if the single rate is less than the sum of the two which are made to and from the distributing center, it is not, for that reason, necessarily objectionable. |