Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-19
Weakness of the Interstate
Commerce Act.
YESTERDAYS DECISION
IN LINE WITH OTHER RULINGS
OF THE COURTS.
Popular Impression Regarding Power
to Restrain the Railroads
is Incorrect.

The decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States handed down yesterday. in
the case of the interstate commerce COM
mission against the Louisville and Nash
vile Railroad Company the Western rail-
way of Alabama and the Atlanta and West
Point Railroad Company, in relation to the
long and short-haul clause of the inter-
state commerce law, contains no new prtn-
ciple In the Interpretation of the law affect
ing the railroads according to the view of
lawyers who have had business with the
interstate commerce commission. 1t only
adds another decision to two or three that
have already been made. the effect of
which is to show that the popular impress
sion in relation to the laws restraint on
railroads has no standing in the courts.
When the interstate commerce law was
passed by Congress the fourth section of
the law was heralded throughout the coun-
try as a great victory for the people, that
would insure for the future the mainte-
nance of the principle that a railroad COM
pany may not charge more for a short haul
than II charges for a longer haul over the
same line of road. 1t was then popularity
believed that the practice of railroads in
delivering goods at a small town and then
carrying other goods several hundred miles
further to a larger city, charging less for
the long haul than for the shorter one.
would cease. But when the law was
brought into court 1t was found that the
lOiS anu SHOTl-ndul ClduS6 was not SO IN
terpreted
The Law in the Case.
The fourth section of the interstate COM
merce law provides that ut shall be unlaw-
full for any common carrier subject to the
provisions of this act to charge receive
any greater compensation in the aggregate
for the transportation of passengers or of
like kind of property, under substantially
similar circumstances and conditions for a
shorter than for longer distance over the
same line in the same direction, the shorter
haul being included within the longer dis
tance; but this shall not be construed as
authorizing any common carrier within the
terms of this act to charge and receive as
great compensation for a shorter as for a
longer distance"
The law further provides that upon ap-
plication to the commission appointed under
the provisions of this act such common
carrier may, in special cases, after investi-
CATION by the commission, be authorized to
charge less for longer than for shorter dis
tances for the transportation of passengers
or property and the commission may from
time to time prescribe the extent to which
such designated common carrier may be re-
lieved from the operations of this act"
The provision that the restriction that the
conditions must be under substantially
similar circumstances and conditions has
prevented the law from operating as IL was
popularity supposed it would operate.
Vase oSSAoCu L 4CotCI0dy.
The case decided by the Supreme Court
yesterday was one in which a merchant in
New Orleans claimed that the rates were
excessive and unreasonable from New
Orleans to La Grange on the line of the
road running from New Orleans to Atlanta
The interstate commerce commission held
that the action of the road in charging q
higher rate to La Grange than to points
beyond that place and to Atlanta the lat
ter being seventy-one miles further than
La Grange from New Orleans. was in viola
tion of the long and short-haul clause of
the interstate commerce law.
The charges on the road from New Or
leans to Atlanta Were lower than those
from New Orleans to places a hundred
miles nearer than Atlanta. These latter
rates were made UP of the through rate to
Atlanta. added to the local rate from At
lanta back to the point of destination
Goods put of the train at LA Grange
seventv-one miles west of Atlanta paid the
iull freight to Atlanta and the local rate
pack 10 La Grange. At the same rate the
goods might have actually been shipped
TO Atlanta and then rebilled back to La
Grange.
Held Not to Be Discrimination.
The decision of the United States Su-
preme Court yesterday declared that no
discrimination was shown in this case
Atlanta being a competitive point, it had
more than once been held that under such
cohultlon the lower rate could be al
lowed by the railroad. The fact that the
road charged the local rate from Atlanta
back to the points west of that city could
not be interpreted as discrimination But
the towns east of La Grange and between
that place and Atlanta, all longer hauls
than that to La Grange, all paid a less
freight rate than did La Grange
The. result of this decision by the Su-
preme Court is to add to the conviction
among men interested in the enforcement
OF a law for preventing a road from chary-
ing more for a short than for a long haul
that the present law will prove practically
as inenectual as II the fourth section, re-
lating to the long and short haul were not
In the law at all
The interstate commerce commission
brought this case to the United States Su-
preme Court. believing that IL contained
elements of difference from cases already
decided by that court. involving the same
general questions, to secure a decision
But each decision by the Supreme Court
shows only the inefectiveness of the law to
reach the classes of cases that 1t was pop
ularly supposed would be affected when