The Winslow mail., 1920-04-23

anu CdlllOTuld. LII 1ooo Iu0 OLdI0 VI
New York fixed the maximum fare on
certain railroads now comprising the
New York Central System at two
cents a mile, and, strange as it may
SEEM that fare continued in effect
until June 25, 1918. Later it became
the practice of states to create Com
missions, clothing them with rate
making and other regulatory powers.
AS the nation grew and our from
tiers began to disappear, the necessity
| for interstate regulation of common
carriers gradually became more ap-
parent. The carriers had always had
a free hand in the making of inter
state rates. In many instances rail-
road officials were financially in
terested in enterprises to which their
companies gave special privileges and
preferential rates. 1t was the prac-
tice to cover the rate by billing or
| der or midnight tariff, one copy of
which was furnished to the beneficiary
! and one copy to each Of the agents al
point of origin and destination, the
only remaining copy being retained il
1 the files of the General Freight De-
partment. Frequently no record was
made of these clandestine transac-
tions. The beneficiary would simply
pay the regular tariff rate and on pre-
sentation of the paid freight bill to
the Chief Tariff Officer of the rail
road would receive the rebate which
previously had been agreed upon
Free passes were distributed by
| freight solicitors to such an extent
| that the revenue from passenger
itrain service was considered excep-
| tionally good whenever it paid the
cost of advertising. Certain classes
of traffic, notably beer and packing
house products, were not bearing thei1
proper proportion of the total trans
lportation expense.
Then came the reformation. Popu-
lar resentment had been aroused to
such a pitch that the Senate ordered
a nationwide investigation of trans
IportatiOn conditions. The following
lyear QSSO Congress passed the Inter
state Commerce Act. There was an
Immediate revulsion Of feeling toward
Apast methods. Business, big and lit
tie. experienced change Of heart
sThe Act proved to be as beneficial to
the carriers as it was to the public
THE discontinuance of free passes and
rebates, the abolition Of the overnight
lmethod Of establishing rates, and the
abandonment of preferential transit
privileges placed all carriers and all
shippers on fairly equitable basis
and in the final analysis the carrier
that made the best time and gave the
best service got the most business.
| Those who are familiar with the
subject will doubtless remember that
while the Act authorized the Commits
sion appointed under it to take cogni-
zance of and abate all unjust discri-
minatiOn, it was not until 1906 that
Congress gave the Commission power
to prescribe maximum interstate rates
The situation then was this: The
carriers continued to have the right to
make their own interstate rates, sub
ject only to the Interstate Commerce
Commissions authority to reduce
them; and such rates having been
made at a time when there was no
Federal body legally qualified to re-
view them, were naturally projected
On higher scale than those which
had been prescribed by the States.
There being an expense proviso in
the Act as passed in 1887, and as re-
enacted in 1905, that it's provisions
did not apply to the transportation of
property wholly within a state. it is
plain that Congress then considered
that the right of a state to regulate its
intrastate commerce was as full and
plenary as was Congress- right to re-
gulate interstate commerce.
Although the carriers began to i'm
prove and prosper under the whole
some influences of the new legislation
they also began to chafe under the re-
straint of state regulation. The
States prescribed rates which re-
stricted the carriers to reasonable
rate of return on the property de-
voted to the public USE The Inter
state Commerce Commission per-
mitted them to charge the rates which
they made themselves, provided nc
one complained; but if after a hear
ing upon complaint, any such carrier