Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/288/294/case.html
Timestamp: 2016-05-27 16:21:55
Document Index: 210489970

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 315', '§ 706', '§ 708', '§ 700', '§ 91', '§ 708', '§ 315', '§ 330', '§ 501', '§ 381']

Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States :: 288 U.S. 294 (1933) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
› Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States
Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States 288 U.S. 294 (1933)
U.S. Supreme CourtNorwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States, 288 U.S. 294 (1933)Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United StatesNo. 272Argued January 10, 11, 1933Decided February 6, 1933288 U.S. 294CERTIORARI TO THE COURT
The Tariff Act of 1922 empowers the President to change rates of duty in order to equalize differences in costs of production in this country and abroad, but provides -- § 315(c) -- that, before he acts, there shall have been an investigation of such differences by the Page 288 U. S. 295 Tariff Commission, in the making of which the Commission shall give reasonable public notice of its hearings, and shall give "reasonable opportunity to parties interested to be present, to produce evidence, and to be heard." The Commission is authorized "to adopt such reasonable procedure, rules, and regulations as it may deem necessary."
5. No one has a legal right to the maintenance of an existing tariff rate. P. 288 U. S. 318. Page 288 U. S. 296
Certiorari, 287 U.S. 586, to review the affirmance of a judgment of the United States Customs Court sustaining certain duties over the protests of the importer. For earlier phases of the same dispute, see 274 U. S. 106. Page 288 U. S. 297
In October, 1922, the American Nitrogen Products Company submitted to the Tariff Commission a request for a report and recommendation to the President that the duty on sodium nitrite be increased 50 percent. It Page 288 U. S. 298 stated in this request that, with every reasonable effort to economize, it had been unable to compete with the foreign manufacturers, and had been forced to close its plant. In response to this request, the Commission, on March 27, 1923, ordered that an investigation be made, declared that a public hearing would be held on a date thereafter to be fixed, and gave public notice of its order. The Commission then proceeded to the business of investigation. From the chief producers of sodium nitrite in the United States (the American Nitrogen Products Company and another), the agents of the Commission received the fullest measure of disclosure as to the costs of production and other details of the business. The information as to costs was subject to a pledge of secrecy, the manufacturers taking the position, to which the Commission acceded, that costs were trade secrets, to be withheld from competitors. The chief foreign producers were two -- the Norsk-Hydro, a Norwegian company, represented by the petitioner, and the Badische-Anilin of Germany. Both foreign producers refused to supply the investigators for the Commission with any statement of costs, or to permit access to their records. The Norwegian company wrote afterwards in a cablegram to the petitioner: "On principle, we always refuse publish cost price, consequently did not furnish investigators any information enabling them calculate cost price." The Commission was hindered, but not baffled. Its investigators went to Norway, and, consulting other sources of information, made an estimate of cost as best they could. By July 20, 1923, the preliminary investigation was over, and the Commission was ready for a public hearing. It gave public notice on that date that, on September 10, 1923, all parties interested would be given an opportunity to appear before the Commission, to produce evidence, and to be heard with regard to differences in the cost of sodium nitrite and any other facts and conditions affecting the inquiry. Page 288 U. S. 299
In the interval, there were other happenings that bear on the merits of the controversy. On September 15, 1923, the Commission made public a report or summary of its Page 288 U. S. 300 information, still omitting, however, any statement as to the costs of production at the applicant's domestic plant. On September 11, it received a letter from the importer's counsel renewing his demand for a complete copy of the application and demanding at the same time that "every particle of evidence gathered by the Commission or its representatives" be submitted to his inspection, and that he be accorded the privilege of examining any and all witnesses, including the field agents of the Commission, with reference thereto. On September 24, the Commission wrote to counsel refusing his request for a disclosure of "every particle of evidence," but stating that the American Nitrogen Products Company had agreed to disclose its cost of production data if the opposition, the Norwegian Nitrogen Products Company, would furnish cost data for the Norwegian product. The importer did not accept this offer. It did not present any excuse for failing to accept it. It did not even state that it had made any effort to induce its principal abroad to supply it with the necessary data. It paid no attention to the suggestion that disclosure should be mutual, and stood upon its rights, whatever they might be.
On September 26, the hearing went on again. Counsel for the importers submitted copies of cablegrams exchanged between his client and its Norwegian principal. The cablegram from the client informed the principal of the estimate of costs of production in Norway contained in the summary prepared by the Commission. The answering cablegram stated that the estimate was far too low, but confirmed the report of the investigators that information had been refused on the ground that the costs were confidential. That part of the cablegram has been quoted already. T he chairman, responding to a request for an adjournment of thirty days, made inquiry of counsel whether definite figures would be obtained from Norway Page 288 U. S. 301 in return for the extension. To this, counsel retorted that he was not offering any consideration, nor joining in any barter, but "relying strictly upon the statute." The outcome of the colloquy was an order for an adjournment until October 6. Before this adjournment was taken, counsel submitted five separate requests. Request number one was that his client
At the adjourned hearing on October 6, the Commission announced its ruling with reference to these requests, notice of the ruling having been previously conveyed to counsel for the importer. The decision was, in substance, that data gathered by the Commission with the understanding that they were to be treated as confidential would be withheld, that the investigators working for the Commission would not be required to produce such data or to be cross-examined about them, but that, as to all these subjects of inquiry, the importer would be permitted to offer any evidence that it was able to present, and to be heard in oral and written argument with reference thereto. Page 288 U. S. 302 Upon the announcement of this ruling, counsel for the importer stated that he would offer no testimony on behalf of his client, but would thereafter file a brief.
"the President, insofar as he finds it practicable, shall take into consideration (1) the differences in conditions in production, including wages, costs of material, and other items in costs of production of such or similar articles in the United States and in competing foreign countries; (2) the differences in the wholesale selling prices of domestic and foreign articles in the principal markets of the United States; (3) Page 288 U. S. 303 advantages granted to a foreign producer by a foreign government, or by a person, partnership, corporation, or association in a foreign country, and (4) any other advantages or disadvantages in competition."
The appeal to history is a threefold one: to the history of the process of tariffmaking by Congress and congressional Page 288 U. S. 304 committees; to the history of this statute in its progress through the Houses, and to the history of this investigating Commission and of others that came before.
"Investigations [in Congress] often proceed behind closed doors, for the manifest reason that otherwise some witnesses would not be frank, perhaps would not attend, putting themselves, if Page 288 U. S. 305 possible, beyond the reach of the committee."
We have said that the inference is a strong one, yet, of course, it is far from conclusive, and might even be inadequate if it were considered by itself. The history of the statute as it passed through the two Houses of the Congress supplies confirmatory evidence. The bill in its early stages empowered the President to change tariff rates, but said nothing whatever as to the manner in which the preliminary investigation should be made. 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 7, p. 7108, pt. 11, pp. 11,155, 11,156, 11,193. A letter from President Harding to the chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate recommended that Congress name the Tariff Commission as the source of information and recommendation upon which the President might proclaim a change. 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 11, p. 11,211. Several amendments embodying this recommendation were proposed in each chamber of the Congress. Nowhere in the long debates that followed is there a suggestion by anyone that witnesses or others appearing in the Page 288 U. S. 306 inquiry should be heard in any other way than according to the customary procedure for investigating bodies. The first amendment named the Tariff Commission as the investigator, but gave no directions as to the mode of action. 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 11, pp. 11,229, 11,232. A second provided that the Commission "shall give such opportunity as it deems proper for the presentation of material facts in each case and arguments thereon." 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 11, p. 11,229. These provisions aroused the fear that, at times, there might be no hearing, or hearings at which only one side would be permitted to appear. 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 11, p. 11,231. A third amendment, proposed in the Senate, recast the statute by providing that
If Congress was unwilling to prescribe a requirement that the "hearings shall be public," or that the President shall publish the testimony when announcing his decision, Page 288 U. S. 307 it is hard to believe that it intended every member of the public affected by an increase or decrease of the duty to inspect and copy all the records and data collected by the Commission, and to cross-examine the investigators as well as the producers or importers appearing at the hearing. If a privilege so far-reaching was to be accorded as a matter of right, there would be a publicity far greater than any that would result from throwing the doors of the hearings open to all who wished to enter. By the Revenue Act of 1916 (c. 463, § 706, 39 Stat. 756, 797), the Commission and its agents are given access to any document pertinent to the subject matter under investigation in the possession of anyone engaged in the production, importation, or distribution of the commodity affected, with power to inspect and copy, to summon witnesses, and to administer oaths. If the hearings are to have the scope for which the petitioner contends, all this information is subject to the call of every business rival unless it comes within the description of "trade secrets or processes." Revenue Act of 1916, § 708. It happens in this case that the number of competitors is small. Cases may arise in which it will mount into the hundreds. Any one of these competitors will be free, in the view of the petitioner, to pry without hindrance into the business of the others, for everything collected by the Commission will have the quality of a public record. Not only will there be a privilege to inspect whatever is of record, but the process, it is said, may be carried even farther, by examination and cross-examination as to whatever is thus discovered. The statute does not say that the parties affected by the duty may be present during the preliminary investigation by the agents of the Commission. They are to be present at a hearing, which may be public or private as the Commission shall determine. The statute does not say that they are to have an opportunity to produce evidence and to be heard to whatever extent they may desire. It says Page 288 U. S. 308 that they are to have a reasonable opportunity, and this subject to the power of the Commission to adopt such reasonable procedure, rules, and regulations as it may deem necessary. Nothing in the statute suggests a belief of the lawmakers that every producer or importer was to be viewed, like a party to a lawsuit, as the adversary of every other, with privilege of examination and cross-examination extended through the series. "There must be a limit to individual argument in such matters if government is to go on." Holmes, J., in Bi-Metallic Inv. Co. v. Colorado, 239 U. S. 441, 239 U. S. 445.
The powers of the President under the flexible tariff provisions of the Act of 1922 differ in degree, rather than in kind, from powers that have long been his. By an act of March 3, 1815 (3 Stat. 224), the President was empowered to give effect to a repeal of duties upon imports whenever he was "satisfied that the discriminating or countervailing duties" of the foreign nation affected, "so far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States," had been abolished. See Field v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649, 143 U. S. 685. Powers very similar were conferred in later years. See, e.g., Act of March 3, 1817, c. 39, 3 Stat. 361; Act of January 7, 1824, c. 4, 4 Stat. 2, 3; Act of May 31, 1830, c. 219, 4 Stat. 425; Act of June 26, 1884, c. 121, 23 Stat. 57; Field v. Clark, supra, pp. 143 U. S. 686-689. [Footnote 1] The Tariff Page 288 U. S. 309 Act of 1890 went farther than those before it. Whenever the President became satisfied that the government of any country producing and exporting certain enumerated articles had imposed duties upon the agricultural or other products of the United States which he found to be reciprocally unequal and unreasonable, he was to have power to suspend the provisions of the tariff law whereby importation of the enumerated articles had previously been free. 26 Stat. 567, 612, c. 1244. Broader still was the delegation of power under the Tariff Act of 1909, which set up a system of maximum and minimum rates with permission to the President to adopt the one set or the other. 36 Stat. 11, 82, c. 6. Under none of these statutes was executive action conditioned upon an inquiry and report by any officer or department. In the fulfillment of his duties, the President consulted whatever sources of information appeared to be appropriate, and, when satisfied as to the facts, made proclamation of the action.
"To secure information to assist the President in the discharge of the duties imposed upon him by this section, and the Page 288 U. S. 310 officers of the Government in the administration of the customs laws, the President is hereby authorized to employ such persons as may be required."
The Tariff Board went down at the end of 1912 through the failure of the Congress to provide the ways and means. Taussig, supra, 424, n. 1. No similar body was created till the organization of the present Tariff Commission in 1916. Act of September 8, 1916, c. 463, §§ 700, 702, 703, 706, 707, 39 Stat. 756, 795, 796, 797; 19 U.S.Code, §§ 91, 96, 97, 100, 101. Cf. Taussig, supra, p. 481. The function of the Commission as first organized was to investigate the administration and fiscal and industrial effects of the customs laws of this country and other kindred problems, to put at the disposal of the President, the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Finance of the Senate, whenever requested, all information at its command, and to make such investigations and reports as might be requested by the President or by either of the committees, or by either branch of Congress. In aid of these purposes and duties, it was empowered to subpoena witnesses and conduct hearings. The result of an investigation might be a recommendation to Congress that would lead to the increase or decrease of existing duties. There is nothing to show that, in conducting these investigations, it permitted any interested person to inspect its collected data or to cross-examine others. On the other hand, it does affirmatively appear, set forth at large in its reports to Congress, that it withheld even from that body disclosure of the costs of production of individual producers, confining its reports to averages and symbols that gave no token of identity. Census of Dyes and Coal Tar Chemicals Page 288 U. S. 311 for 1917, p. 11; Ninth Annual Report, U.S. Tariff Commission, p. 17; Sixteenth Annual Report, p. 19. [Footnote 2] From the beginning, there has been an administrative policy to treat the costs or investments of identified producers as akin to a trade secret, with the result that disclosure, even if not strictly within the prohibition of the statute (Revenue Act of 1916, § 708), was forbidden in the view of the Commission by persuasive considerations of fair dealing and expediency. Congress did not then protest, and indeed never has protested, though Congress was the very body for whose benefit the investigation had been made and the reports transmitted. In providing, as it did in 1922, that a reasonable opportunity for a hearing should be given to anyone affected by a change, it had no thought, we may well believe, to prohibit reservations and confidences that would be allowed against itself.
The administrative practice before the Act of 1922 might be too desultory and brief to fix the meaning of the statute if it did not find support, and that unmistakable and ample, in administrative practice afterwards. Consistently through all its hearings, the Commission has acted upon the principle that the cost of production will not be made known to competitors if the producers are so few that there can be no disclosure of the cost without disclosing the identity of those producing at that cost. A report by the Commission, submitted by the government in connection with the briefs, explains the practice that has been followed and the reasons supporting it. At times, the reports by the Commission have shown costs identified by number or by letter. This has been done Page 288 U. S. 312 in those instances, and those only, where producers were so many that identity was cloaked. Even then, it was often necessary to combine the costs in one country, for example, in Eastern Venezuela, with those in other countries, or to combine items of one class, for example, advertising expenses, with items of another class, such as administrative expenses. At times, the Commission has resorted to the expedient of showing costs in the form of averages. It has applied the same methods impartially to residents and to foreigners. In one of its reports, the foreign costs of Danish and Dutch producers were published in combined form in order to avoid disclosure of the costs in Denmark, the principal competing country. Finally, a third group of reports exists where the cost data are not given at all, either directly or indirectly. This has been the form where there were fewer than three companies, or where the number was very small and one predominated in the industry. The reports, taken collectively, show variations in degree as to the kind and fullness of the information imparted to the public, the variations depending in every instance upon the estimate by the Commission of the effect of the disclosure. [Footnote 3] What is more significant than any variations in the reports is a strain of uniformity that runs through all alike. Not in one of them is there a disclosure of the individual data brought together by the Commission through the work of its investigators. Not in one is there the suggestion that the reasonable opportunity for a hearing conceded by the statute carries with it the opportunity to inspect "every particle of evidence" collected by the Commission, and to examine and cross-examine the men who have collected it. Page 288 U. S. 313
arising under § 315 of the Act of 1922. United States Senate Hearings, Investigation of Tariff Commission, 1926, 1927. In the investigation that followed, the procedure and methods of the Commission were thoroughly explored. One of its members, Mr. Glassie, in his statement to the Committee, explained that it was impossible for the hearing to be "so conducted as to permit of the open disclosure of the individual evidence of costs." United States Senate Hearings, supra, p. 529. Indeed, without such explanation, the reservation of these and kindred confidences was made abundantly apparent by records and reports. At the close of the inquiry, the Committee reported to the Senate. Senate Report No. 1325, 70th Congress, First Session, May 28, 1928. A majority of the Committee advised that the flexible provisions of the tariff act be repealed for the reason chiefly that the President was already overburdened with executive duties, and that the Commission be reorganized as a congressional agency. There was no criticism of the practice whereby the costs of individual producers were treated as confidential. A minority report advised that the Commission be continued, and with it the provision for a flexible tariff. Such, it seems, was also the judgment of Congress as a whole, for, despite the majority report of the Page 288 U. S. 314 Committee, the Commission exists today. Tariff Act of 1930, c. 497, 46 Stat. 590, 696, §§ 330-336. [Footnote 4]
The administrative practice developed before the Act of 1922 has thus been continued and confirmed with the Page 288 U. S. 315 tacit approval of the President and the acquiescence of the Congress. As late as January 28, 1933, after this cause had been submitted to the court, the signs of acquiescence and approval were strikingly renewed. On that day, there was a resolution by the Senate directing a report by the Commission in respect of problems of the tariff. 76 Cong.Rec. pp. 2877, 2878. One of the subjects to be reported was
To the external aids that are drawn from history and analogy and administrative practice, there is to be added another that may be said to be internal -- the aid to be derived from the wording of related sections. In the same tariff act that makes provision in these general words for a hearing by the Commission as a step in the development Page 288 U. S. 316 of the process of legislation, there is another section prescribing the remedy available to an importer after the legislative process has been completed, and the question is whether the merchandise has been properly appraised. Act of September 21, 1922, c. 356, § 501, 42 Stat. 966, 19 U.S.Code § 381. The remedy in such circumstances is an appeal from the decision of the appraiser to the Board of General Appraisers. The Board shall assign the appeal to one of its members, who shall give reasonable notice of the time and place of the hearing,
This is the way that Congress spoke when it wished to attach to an administrative proceeding the incidence of a trial in court. There are times when the obscurity of one section as contrasted with the clearness of another may be ascribed to inattention. The need is not perceived of filling up the outlines because what is within them is assumed or carelessly overlooked. Not so in this case, where Congress had its attention sharply directed to the fact that plain speech was needed if a hearing was to mean so much. Until it spoke thus plainly, the importer was denied the right to cross-examine and inspect, and this though the privilege of a hearing had been his for many years. It took an explicit statute to overcome the long established policy of the government whereby witnesses testifying to values were to be protected from publicity. [Footnote 5] If the dissatisfied Page 288 U. S. 317 importer
We are not unmindful of cases in which the word "hearing," as applied to administrative proceedings, has been thought to have a broader meaning. All depends upon the context. There is no denial of the power of Congress to lay bare to the business rivals of a producer, and indeed to the public generally, every document in the office of this Commission and all the information collected by its agents. The question for us here is whether there was the will to go so far. The answer will not be found in definitions of a hearing lifted from their setting and then applied to new conditions. The answer will be found in a consideration of the ends to be achieved in the particular conditions that were expected or foreseen. To know what they are, there must be recourse to all the aids available in the process of construction, to history and analogy and practice, as well as to the dictionary. Much is made by the petitioner of the procedure of the Interstate Commerce Commission when regulating the conduct or the charges of interstate carriers, and that of the Public Service Commissions of the states when regulating the Page 288 U. S. 318 conduct or the charges of public service corporations. The Tariff Commission advises; these others ordain. There is indeed this common bond that all alike are instruments in a governmental process which, according to the accepted classification, is legislative, not judicial. Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U. S. 210, 211 U. S. 226; Keller v. Potomac Electric Power Co., 261 U. S. 428, 261 U. S. 440. Cf. People ex rel. Central Park, M. & E. R. Co. v. Willcox, 194 N.Y. 383, 386, 87 N.E. 517. Whatever the appropriate label, the kind of order that emerges from a hearing before a body with power to ordain is one that impinges upon legal rights in a very different way from the report of a commission which merely investigates and advises. The traditionary forms of hearing appropriate to the one body are unknown to the other. What issues from the Tariff Commission as a report and recommendation to the President may be accepted, modified, or rejected. If it happens to be accepted, it does not bear fruit in anything that trenches upon legal rights. No one has a legal right to the maintenance of an existing rate or duty. Neither the action of Congress in fixing a new tariff nor that of the President in exercising his delegated power is subject to impeachment if the prescribed forms of legislation have been regularly observed. It is very different, however, when orders are directed against public service corporations limiting their powers in the transaction of their business. They may be challenged in the courts if the effect is to reduce the charges to the point of confiscation. Smyth v. Ames, 169 U. S. 466. They may be challenged for other reasons when they are without evidence supporting them, and are merely arbitrary edicts. Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. Union Pac. R. Co., 222 U. S. 541, 222 U. S. 547; Manufacturers' Ry. Co. v. United States, 246 U. S. 457, 246 U. S. 481; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Dep't Public Works, 268 U. S. 39, 268 U. S. 44; Chicago, M. & St.P. Ry. Co. v. Public Utilities Comm'n, 274 U. S. 344, 274 U. S. 351. Cf. Sharfman, The Page 288 U. S. 319 Interstate Commerce Commission, vol. II, p. 424. The "hearing" that such Commissions are to give must be adapted to the consequences that are to follow, to the attack and the review to which their orders will be subject. Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 227 U. S. 88, 227 U. S. 93; St. Louis-S.W. Ry. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 264 U. S. 64; Atchison, T. & S.F. Ry. Co. v. United States, 284 U. S. 248. The Commerce Act, as it stands today, and kindred statutes in the states, are instinct with the recognition of a duty to give a hearing of such a kind that the courts will understand why a commission has acted as it has if their supervisory powers are afterwards invoked for enforcement or revision. No such inference is to be drawn from the act before us now.
The argument for the petitioner portrays the American producer in the position of a plaintiff tendering an issue to others which they are called upon to meet like defendants in a lawsuit. The picture is misleading, for, in truth, Page 288 U. S. 320 there is no lawsuit, nor anything akin to it. See the testimony of Mr. Glassie in the investigation by the Senate (U.S. Senate Hearings, p. 516). The Commission, in conducting an investigation, is free to act on its own motion. Indeed, it often does so. If it is moved by someone else, the investigation is still its own, the request amounting to a mere suggestion which it is free, in its discretion, to accept or to reject. There is nothing in its rules whereby applicants are placed under a duty to state the figures of their costs, still less to divide the total into items. On the contrary, the rules provide that "an application is not required to be in any special form." It
The difficulty is not fully met, however, when we hold that a statement of the costs is not required at the beginning to set the process of investigation going. The question remains whether a statement in some form, even though fragmentary and stripped of detail, may be necessary later on. The persons affected by the change of duty are entitled to a hearing, and this involves, so it is said, such a modicum of information, such a disclosure of the costs in the form of percentages of the market price or Page 288 U. S. 321 otherwise, as to give notice of the ultimate facts to be contested and overcome. What is required in that view is not a bill of particulars, nor a disclosure of the evidence, but a definition of the issue which is to be the theme of the debate.
(a) The Commission did not withhold disclosure from the petitioner with any sinister purpose to make the hearing ineffective. It was moved by the belief that a way could not be found of stating the costs without identifying them with the business of a particular producer. In so acting, it conformed to its own precedents and practice, and to those of such Commissions generally. If it was under a duty to give a hearing similar to one in court -- it was bound to expose everything, details as well as summaries. There was then no middle ground. If it was under a duty to give the kind of hearing that was fair in all the circumstances, it was free to shape its course within reasonable limits by its own conception of the promptings Page 288 U. S. 322 of policy and fairness. It would have kept within the statute even though it had made the hearings private, and had refrained from the publication of anything, either the records of its agents or the testimony of witnesses. 62 Cong.Rec. pt. 11, p. 11, 232. Instead, it made the hearings public, and exposed everything to view except only when publication was likely, in its judgment, to result in hardship or injustice. Ninth Annual Report, United States Tariff Commission, p. 13. See the Rules of the Commission quoted infra in this opinion. There is indeed a possibility that the work of such a body would be seriously hampered if producers were not made to feel that information which in the thought of many is ranked as confidential would be withheld from prying eyes. [Footnote 7] Particularly might that be so when inquiry would have to be made of manufacturers abroad, not subject to compulsion. [Footnote 8] Businessmen may exaggerate the importance of secrecy in matters of this kind. Their sensitiveness is to be reckoned with, whether it be reasonable or not.
There was no appropriate motion or objection that brought to the notice of the Commission a claim that, apart from any details, there was a certain minimum of information due to the petitioner which the Commission was withholding. There is no reason to believe that this minimum was then an object of desire, or that it would have been helpful if conceded. The only statement by the petitioner approaching such a notice was a request that it be furnished with a complete, and not a deleted, copy of Page 288 U. S. 323 the application for relief. The record makes it plain, however, that included in the application were supporting facts and figures giving the costs in fullest detail. The petitioner did not suggest at any time that it would be satisfied with less. On the contrary, its request for a copy of the application was accompanied or quickly followed by a motion setting forth in five subdivisions the particulars exacted, and culminating in a demand that "every particle of evidence" collected by the Commission be held subject to inspection. That was its attitude, made manifest in many ways to the members of the board. That was again its attitude on the petition to the court for a writ of mandamus to hold the Commission to its duty. There would be no justice at this late day in invalidating the proceedings for the failure to supply the petitioner with some average of aggregate which it did not state that it cared for, which even now is not explained, and which, in all likelihood, if given, would have added little to its knowledge. [Footnote 9] Businessmen, as a rule, are not wholly in the dark as to the ways of their competitors.
The Norwegian principal, as we have seen, declined to give any information to the agents of the Commission, and left them to make up their estimate of the foreign Page 288 U. S. 324 costs from indirect and imperfect sources. The petitioner, to be sure, was an agent, not a principal, yet it was the exclusive agent in the United States, and plainly in a relation that gave it influence, if not authority. Not once during the hearing did it offer to make an effort to obtain the foreign costs and submit them to the Commission under a pledge of confidence or otherwise. Its attitude was one of indifference so complete as to vary hardly at all, or so at least the Commission might reasonably infer, from one of purposeful obstruction.
The evidence leaves no room for doubt that the exception stated in this rule has been construed by the Commission as keeping costs secret for the protection of producers, both foreign and domestic, unless disclosure is so cloaked that the identity of the producers will be effectively disguised. Page 288 U. S. 325 Disguise has been found to be impossible when the producers are but two or three. The phrase "trade secrets and processes" is not a new one in the law. It occurs in statutes and judicial decisions, as well as in the rule. The Commission was without competence by any decision it might make to fix the meaning of the phrase as used by Congress or the courts. It had power, however, to interpret its own rules and any phrase contained in them. Evans v. Backer, 101 N.Y. 289, 292, 4 N.E. 516; Duncan's Heirs v. United States, 7 Pet. 435, 32 U. S. 451-452. This it has done by an administrative practice too clear to be misread.