The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1914-06-19
STATE MADE RATES
ARE NOT FINAL
SUPREME COURT DECIDES STATES
CANNOT DISCRIMINATE IN
INTERSTATE TRAFFIC.
SHREVEPORT MADE THE TEST
Claimed Texas Commission Reduced
Rates Far Below Those Allowed
by Commerce Commission.


Westinghouse long step toward
placing railroads under lone master
instead of many" was taken by the
United States Supreme Court in up
holding the power of the Interstate
Commerce Commission to strike down
state rates that discriminate against
Interstate commerce. In substance,
the court said that the Minnesota and
other recent state rate cases in which
the railroads lost might have been de.
cided otherwise had the roads gone to
the commission for relief instead of
the courts.
The decision was announced by JUS.
tice Hughes, Justices Pitney and Lur.
ton dissenting. The case arose out
of complaint by Shreveport, La, mer-
chants that the Texas Railroad Com
mission had shut them out of all Tex
as business by compelling the rail.
roads to reduce Texas state rates far
below what the Interstate Commerce
Commission allowed the railroads run
ming from Shreveport to Texas cities
to charge.
The court first decided that Con-
gress had power to control interstate
charges over an interstate carrier to
the extent necessary to prevent in
furious discrimination against inter-
state traffic, and then that Congress
had conferred this power upon the In
terstate Commerce Commission.
THE fact that carriers are instm-
ments of fntrastate commerce as we'll
as OF interstate commerce." said JUS
tfce Hughes, docs not derogate from
the complete and paramount authority
of Congress over the latter or pre-
clude the federal power from being
exerted to prevent the intrastate oper-
ations of such carriers from being
made a means Of injury to that which
has been confined to federal care.
wherever the interstate and intra.
state transactions of carriers are so
related that the government of the
one involves the control of the other,
It is Congress and not the state that
is entitled to prescribe the final and
dominant rule, for otherwise Congress
would be denied the exercise of its
constitutional authority and the state.
not the nation, would be supreme with.
in the national field"
In removing determinations against
interstate commerce, the court held
Congress was not bound to reduce the
interstate rates below what it NAV
deem to be a proper standard to the
carrier and the public.
"Otherwise," said the opinion, ut
could prevent the injury to interstate
commerce only by the sacrifice of its
Judgment as to interstate rates."
Justice Hughes who wrote the
courts decision in the state rate cases
Of year ago, pointed out that the
present case did not conflict with
those cases. He said that it the alb
sence of finding by the commission
of unjust discrimination intrastate
rates undoubtedly were left to be
fixed by the carrier and subject to
the authority Of the states.
I'VE are not unmindful of the gray
ity of the question that is presented
when state and federal views conflict"
the opinion concluded, "but it was rec.
ognized at the beginning the nation
could not prosper if interstate and
foreign trade were governed by many
masters and where the interests of
the freedom of interstate commerce
are involved the judgment of Congress
and of the agencies it lawfully es-
tablishment must control"
Members Of the Interstate Com
merce Commission regarded this case
as one of the most important in which
the body ever has been involved.
The decision was written by Secre-
tary Lane before he left the commits
sion to become a member of the presi-
dents cabinet.
BATON ROuge.-The gallOWs will he