the manner and method of presenting, marking, packing, and delivering property for transportation; etc.

(5) Publicity as to rates, fares, charges, etc.

Carriers subject to the act must file with the commission, print, and keep for public inspection, schedules showing all the rates, fares, and charges for transportation not only between points on its own route but also between points on its own route and points on the route of any other carrier with which a through route and joint rates have been established. A carrier must furnish a written statement, upon request made of its agent, for a written statement of a rate or charge applicable to a described shipment between stated points. Refusal or misstatement of rates in such a case, if resulting in damage to a shipper, subjects the carrier to a penalty.

Enforcement of the Prohibitions of the Law. Not only is the commission directed to secure compliance by the carriers with these standards but it must also enforce certain prohibitions enumerated in the act as follows:

(1) Free passes and free transportation.

Carriers are prohibited from the issuance, directly or indirectly of any interstate free ticket, pass, or transportation except as specifically permitted in Paragraph (7) of Section I of the law.

(2) Discriminations and preferences.*

Unjust discrimination is defined in Section 2 of the act as the charge, demand, collection, or receipt from any person or persons by special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, directly or indirectly, of a greater or less compensation for any service than is charged, demanded, collected, or received from any other person for performing a “like and contemporaneous service under substantially similar circumstances and conditions." Such unjust discrimination is prohibited.

Section 3 prohibits making or giving “any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, locality, or any particular description of traffic in any respect whatsoever."

To prevent discrimination in extension of credit, the act prohibits a carrier by railroad from delivering freight until the charges thereon have been paid, except under such rules

* Under this heading may be included the prohibition in the “ Commodities Clause.'

and regulations as the commission may prescribe from time. to time.

(3) "Long-and-short-haul" and " Aggregate-of-intermediates

clause.

Section 4 renders it unlawful for a carrier to charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for transportation over a shorter than for a longer distance, over the same line or route in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; or to charge any greater compensation for a through rate than the aggregate of the intermediate rates. The commission, however, under certain conditions, is authorized to grant carriers relief from the operation of this section of the law.

(4) Rail and water competition.

Rates originally reduced by carriers to meet water competition may not be raised again until the commission, after hearing, finds that the proposed increase rests upon changed conditions other than the elimination of water competition. (5) Changes in rates, fares, charges, etc.

Paragraph (3) of Section 6 prohíbits carriers from making any change in rates, fares, and charges which have been filed and published by any common carrier, as required by this section, except after thirty days' notice to the commission and to the public. The commission may, in its discretion and for good cause, modify these requirements of this section of the law.

Paragraph (7) of Section 6 prohibits carriers from engaging or participating in transportation of passengers or property unless their rates, fares, and charges have been filed and published in accordance with the provisions of the law. Furthermore, departure from the published rates, directly, or indirectly in the form of refunds or extension of special facilities or privileges, is prohibited.

(6) Continuous carriage of freight.

Section 7 renders it unlawful for a carrier to enter into any combination, contract, or agreement to prevent continuous shipment of freight from place of shipment to place of destination, through various devices such as change of time schedule, carriage in different cars, etc., and freight carriage is to be treated as continuous unless stoppage is made in good faith for some necessary purpose.

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Not all provisions of the law are directed at the carriers as in the above cases. Paragraph (3) of Section 10 prescribes penalties for shippers and others who "knowingly and wilfully, directly or indirectly, himself or by employee, agent, officer, or otherwise,

by false billing, false classification, false weighing, etc . . . obtain or attempt to obtain transportation for such property at less than the regular rates then established and in force on the line of transportation . . . or by the use of any false bill, bill of lading receipt, etc.,... knowing the same to be false, fictitious, etc., . . . obtain or attempt to obtain any allowance, refund, or payment for damage. . . whereby the compensation of such carrier . . . shall in fact be made less than the regular rates."

Positive Duties of the Commission. In addition to functioning as the administrative agency for securing compliance of the carriers with the standards and prohibitions described above, the act specifically directs the commission, itself, to perform certain duties which are necessary for establishment and maintenance of just and reasonable rates, facilities, classifications, practices, etc. The more significant of these are as follows:

(1) Adequate transportation facilities.

The commission is authorized to require the filing of car service rules and regulations, and it may, in its discretion, direct that such rules and regulations be incorporated in the carriers' schedules showing rates, fares, and charges. After hearing, on complaint or upon its own initiative, it may establish reasonable car service rules, regulations, and practices, including the compensation to be paid for the use of any locomotive, car, or other vehicle not owned by the carrier using it, and the penalties or other sanctions for nonobservance. Furthermore, after hearing, the commission may authorize or require a carrier to provide itself under certain conditions with safe and adequate facilities for performing as a common carrier its car service, as that term is defined in the act.

Upon receipt of complaint of any shipper or owner of a lateral or branch line of railroad, that a carrier has failed to install and operate a switch connection, the commission may hear and investigate the complaint and determine as to "safety and practicability thereof and justification and reasonable compensation therefor," and it may order compliance with Paragraph (9) of Section 1 of the law, relating to switch connections.

(2) Reasonableness of rates, classifications, practices, etc.

Section 15, Paragraph (6), of the act authorizes the commission to determine and prescribe just and reasonable individual or joint rates, fares, or charges, or the maximum or minimum or both maximum and minimum, to be charged

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by carriers when it has found, after full hearing, that the rates or fares in effect are unjust, unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory, unduly preferential or prejudicial, or otherwise in violation of the act. It may determine and prescribe, similarly, for classifications, regulations, or practices and it may establish under certain limitation through routes, joint classifications, and joint rates, fares, or charges.

Whenever a schedule containing a new rate, classification, regulation, or practice is filed with the commission, it may suspend the operation of such schedule, pending hearing and decision concerning its lawfulness, for a period not longer than one hundred and twenty days, and, in the event the hearing cannot be concluded within this period of suspension, an additional suspension period of not over thirty days is permitted. The commission may require the carrier or carriers interested to maintain an accurate record of all accounts received by reason of the increased rate during the suspension period, and it may, upon completion of the hearing and decision, require them to make refunds, with interest, of such amounts as by the commission's decision are found unjustifiable."

The commission has also been authorized to modify state rates when they are found to result in preference, prejudice, or discrimination against interstate or foreign commerce, "the law of any state or the decision or order of any state authority to the contrary notwithstanding."

The principles which Congress has laid down to guide the commission in its prescription of rates are as follows:

1. The rates must be such as to yield to the carriers (as a whole or as a whole in each of such rate groups or territories as the commission may from time to time designate) an aggregate annual net railroad operating income equal to a fair return upon the aggregate value of the railroad property of such carriers held for and used in the service of transportation, under honest, efficient, and economical management and reasonable expenditures for maintenance of way, structures, and equipment.

2. Due consideration must be given to the necessity of enlarging transportation facilities in order to provide the people of the United States with adequate transportation.

3. In determining the valuation of the railroad property as a basis for the fixing of rates, due consideration must be given "to all the elements of value recognized by law for rate-making purposes," and only such consideration must be given to the property investment account of the carrier as the law permits in establishing values for rate-making purposes. For the two years beginning March 1, 1920, 51 per cent of the aggregate value was to be deemed a fair return. The commission, however, was empowered in its discretion to add a sum not exceeding one-half of I per centum of such aggregate value to make provision in whole or in part for improvements, betterments or equipment."

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(3) Allowances to owners of property for service in transportation.

The commission is authorized by Paragraph (13) of Section 15 to determine what is a reasonable maximum charge to be paid by a carrier to the owner of property transported under the act for services rendered directly or indirectly in connection with such transportation or for furnishing any instrumentality used therein.

(4) Released rates.

Section 20 renders carriers fully liable to the lawful holder of a bill of lading for any loss, damage, or injury to his property. But the commission may authorize or require carriers to establish and maintain rates dependent upon the value declared or agreed upon in writing by the shipper as the released value of the property received for transportation (excluding ordinary live stock), whenever rates dependent upon and varying with declared or agreed values would, in its opinion, be just and reasonable "under the circumstances and conditions surrounding the transportation." In such cases, the liability of the carrier to the owner of the bill of lading is limited to an amount not in excess of the value declared.

Ancillary Activities. In order to meet its responsibilities under the provisions of the law described above, the commission conducts certain ancillary activities, as follows:

Valuation of Railroads.

Authorization of Issuance of Securities.
Accounting.

Statistics.

Investigation and Research.

The necessity for ascertaining and revising to date the valuation of railroads as a basis for effective rate regulation, is obvious. Without governmental control of the issuance of securities by the carriers, the commission cannot readily prescribe such just and reasonable rates as will yield a “fair return," in accordance with the provisions of the Transportation Act described above. Furthermore, effective administration of most of the provisions of the law is impractical without control of carriers' accounts, adequate statistical information as to their operations, and general knowledge on the various problems in transportation with which the commission must deal.