Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-23

comparisons MADE
an this Interpretation of the inter-
state commerce law, so far as it relates
to shippers. we cannot concur. The
cases cited by the government such
as those requiring liquor sellers at their
point to know whether the person to
/. whom drink is sold is, a minor or with
in the prohibition of the ordinance or
not are not controlling, nor very per-
suasive.
THE interstate commerce act was
expected to promote, not to restrain
trade and commences; to secure fair
dealings in commerce through uniform
ity, not to put distractions in the way
of commerce. Surely the farmer who
brings his produce to town to be
shipped to the city markets or the small
merchant shipping to the country or
the householder who ships his furni-
ture were not meant by the interstate
commerce law to be guilty of having
accepted a concession merely because
they took the word of the carrier or
his agent as TO whate the rate was. In
this respect the shipper and the car
rier stand on different ground.
THE carrier is required by a separate
provision of the law to establish and
publish rates and is forbidden to charge
or collect from the shipper a rate great
err or less than such established and
published rate. But is the ordinary
|
the situation to which the law relates
thus bound-bound at his peril under
the law intended to promote commerce,
to cipher out before he can safely put
| anything that he has in commerce, the
confusing papers and figures that gen.
orally make up tariff sheet? Plainly
| not, 1t seems to us"
Court Cites Authority
In support of this contention the
court cites First Bishop new criminal
law, section 2S6
Though it is true that large ship
| pers like the plaintiff in error do not
usually take the word of a carrier as
| to what the rate is, but examine for
| themselves the tariff sheet and have
| all the knowledge that is necessary to
an intelligent examination from which
it might easily follow that professions
| of ignorance on the part of such ship
| pers would stand on a different plane
from the ordinary shipper, 1t does not
on that account follow that the uti-
mate question of intent is not the same
whether the shipper be a large one
or small one; for the law is the same
for all shippers and the duty devolving
on the government is the same, viz,
that before conviction there must be
proof of all the facts upon which the
shippers offense is predicated.
This view of what is essential to con-
stitute the offense makes it plain that
the trial court was in error, as a mat
ter of principle that the trial court APP
piled in this case, and this error is
made ali the palmer, lifting it from
what otherwise might be considered
mere technical error to the level of
real substantial error, when the exact
nature of the so-called tariffs pub
lished and fled relied upon by the
government as the lawful rate, are
scrutinized and when the rate that
the trial court deciphered out of these
papers is compared with admitted rates
on the same road for a like product.
The tariff sheet relied upon as the law
full published rate filed with the inter-
state commerce commission is tariff
sheet No "a of the Chicago and st.
Louis Traffic association, and the first
thing to be noted is that this tariff
sheet makes no reference by name to
petroleum or the products of petro-
! leum. On the face of tariff sheet No.
is the rate for petroleum or products of
! petroleum appears.
How Rate Was Arrived At
The 1s-cent rate was only arrived
at by a process of circumlocution; that
is to say, on the face of these tariff
sheets there was found a printed line
= governed by Illinois classification eX-
[ cept as noted; thereby turning to
classification adopted by the railroad
and warehouse commission of Illinois
: September z, 1899, it was found that
t petroleum and it's products We're set
? down in the fifth class, and then turn
] ing back to tariff sheet No "a, 1t was
] found that the rate set down for the
| fifth class was IS cents per hundred
: pounds. And so, out of this process OF
reference and cross-reference the law
full published rate was evolved by the
trial court to be IS cents, not because it
: so appeared on the face of the tariff
sheets, because by reference TO other
sheets-sheets fixing not rates, but
! classifications and that not by the m
! terstate commerce commission or the
carrier, but the Illinois railroad COM
mission--it could be so figured out.
The court remarks the number of
nice judicial questions raised, and de-
clares that the court is not prepared to
, say that tariff sheet No. "a really fixes
the rate on petroleum and its products
J at IS cents.
THE most we can say" the opinion
reads, sis that the question is one upon
. which judges after full discussion
might reasonably disagree"
The error of the trial court in taking
away from the plaintiff in error its
! right to submit to the jury the whole
: question of whether II had knowledge
of the tariff sheet from which il is said
to have accepted concessions, and the
intent to violate the law-whether the
that 1t was the lawful rate-is an error
that rises into one of solid substance"
Reviews Landis' Decision
Taking UP the question as to whether
each shipment constituted a separate
offense, by which Interpretation of the
law Judge Lands imposed the largest
/ fine i'm history on the Standard Oil
II company, the court had this to say:
"The gist of the offense is the accept
/ ance of a concession, irrespective of
i whether the property involved was car
| loads. train loads or pounds.
HAS a shipper fully and finally ac-
i cepted a concession when he has done
4 nothing more than to agree with the
carrier that less than the published and
Il fled rates shall be paid for the trans
1 portation of his property? Is it not
! necessary that the transaction be closed
by actual payment of the lower rate?
In the rebate the shipper paid in the
first instance the full rate to the car
rier, and afterwards received back
/ part.
'Manifestly the offense of accepting
a rebate has not been committed until
the shipper has taken back part Of
the first money whereby his property
L. ted Of 1oc N "a