The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-23
Commerce Commission Decides That it Has No Power to Regulate Such
 Rates.
SHIPPING POOLS ALLOWED
Government Has No Jurisdiction Even Where Connecting Rail- road Issues Through Bill
 of Lading.

probably is the most important case which the commission for long time has been called upon to determine. It IS that of the Cosmopolitan Shipping company. Philadelphian organization chartered under the laws of New Jer- sey, against the Hamburg American Packet company; the North German Lloyd Steamship company; the Will, on (HulD Lines and the Scandinavian American lines.
 The opinion in he ,ase which is very voluminous was prepared ov Commissioner Franklin K. Lana. It is an exhaustive discussion of the law bearing upon the case and a lucid statement of the conclsulons of the commission.
 The decision is peculiarly important rot only because it affects llrge inter ests which hitherto lave not bren brought before a judicial tribunal of this country, but because it affects n-a- terially the powers of the interstate commerce commission. In brief ard in effect, the commission decides against itself. It holds that it las no authority over oceanic transportation and thus determines the case adversely to the contention of the complainant
 In this case the complainant alleged that the defendant steamship compa- nies transport traffic under through bills of lading between inland points of the United States and foreign ports and are thereby subject to the jurisdic- ton of the commission: that the de- fendants have made an arrangement l for the pooling of east bound export l traffic moving by rail toNAtlantic ports and thence by steamship lines to points ] in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and German points on the Baltic. that thie so-called Baltic pool arbitrarily determines the ultimate rates from such inland points of the United States to such foreign ports via the North Atlantic ports; and that the Hamburg American Packet company maintains a monopoly of west bound and east bound traffic forwarded on local and on through bills of la1ing betweer l Germany and other continental coun. tries and inland cities of the United States. The prayer of the petition |, that the commission declare the Bal
 tic pool' to be an illegal pooling o' freights under the interstate cornmerc, act, that the monopoly of the Ham
 burgAmerican Packet company be de
 clared unlawful and that relief b, granted to the complainant, which als, is a trans Atlantic steamship company doing a freight business betweel
 American and continental ports
 To this complaint the defendants do
 murred, on the ground first that tn,
 commission has no jurisdiction of tn
 subject matter or power Co procee,
 against the defendants, and. secondly
 that the complaint sets forth no matte
 which is cognizable by the commission
 or which 1t has been given authorit.
 to remedy.
 The commission sustains the dc murrer and directs in an order that tn
 complaint be dismissed.
 Commissioner Lanes opinion de clares ''it has been the uniform inter
 pretation of the law that an all-wate , carrier engaged in carrying freigh originating at New York or New Or
 leans may engage in such traffic be
 tween such ports without publishing it rates with this commission, and so ma the steamships plying between Seattl
 and San Francisco, or the carrie u,bicl, tropenortc froiyb+ eror, r,,,l,,, to Chicago on the Great Lakes, or th river carrier from Memphis to Ne
 Orleans; but if sucl, water-carriers ar controlled or managed by the san, corporation as controls or manages , rail line or if between a rail-and -wate " line there is an arrangement for cor . tinuous carriage, then such water lir becomes subject to all the provision mandatory and prohfbitory of the a, to regulate commerce.
 | If it were the intention of con
 gross to give to this commission iur isdiction over carriers by water en . gagged in the transportation of fol . eign commerce, it would be expec,
 ed that such purpose would be man
 ifested in other portions of the aC and that adequate machinery for Il, 2 enforcement of its provisions woul
 be provided. We look in vain, how O ever, throughout the many provision
 of this statute for the slightest recos
 hilton of such carriers for the tratf II which they handle.
 IS For the reasons given the demu- W Ter will be sustained and the pct T ton dismissed Tine position here {; l. ken, however, does not conclude fl J. commission against an examinatic l. into the relation which exists betwee
 the rail carriers of the United Stat, = and the defendant water carriers ar W condemnation of such arrangement 'l the rail carriers to the seaboard al VI by any means whatsoever, or b cause of any reason advantageous the general public, disobeying al P provision of the act to regulate con
 merce, or refusing, or emitting. N comply with its every reuuiremer II The Cosmopolitan Shipping compaI
 may bring before the commission il
 rail carriers engaged in the transpo
 tation of such foreign commerce a. and from ports of trans-shipment al Ae subject them to investigation as T. their methods of handling such bu! D. ness and the reasons therefore. F. it is found that there is discriminate ht ---- ----
 lContinuea on Third page.)