The Railway Library, 1909: A Collection of Noteworthy Chapters, Addresses, and Papers Relating to Railways, Mostly Published During the Year
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The Railway Library, 1909: A Collection of Noteworthy Chapters, Addresses, and Papers Relating to Railways, Mostly Published During the Year
Railroads -- United States -- Periodicals
"Moreover, an adjudication upon a petition for relief would in
many cases be far from concluding the labors of the commission
in respect to the equities involved, for questions of rates
assume new forms, and may require to be met differently from
day to day; and in those sections of the country in which the
reasons or supposed reasons for exceptional rates are most
prevalent the commission would, in effect, be required to
act as rate makers for all the roads and compelled to adjust
the tariffs so as to meet the exigencies of business while
at the same time endeavoring to protect relative rights and
equities of rival carriers and rival localities. This in any
considerable State would be an enormous task. In a country so
large as ours, and with so vast a mileage of roads, it would be
superhuman. A construction of the statute which should require
its performance would render the due administration of the law
altogether impracticable, and that fact tends strongly to show
that such a construction could not have been intended."
If the advance of rates was ultimately decided to be reasonable, the
carrier would have been deprived during the period of suspension of
the additional earnings to which it was entitled, and under such a
provision of law would be required to maintain, at enormous expense,
a large force of attorneys to answer and defend these protests. It
would confer upon the commission the powers now exercised by the
courts, and the jurisdictions over the same subject by both the
courts and the commission would necessarily produce conflict and
confusion.
The Supreme Court in the case of Texas Pacific R. R. Co. _v._
Abilene Cotton Oil Co. (204 U. S., 426), construing the ninth and
twenty-second sections on the right of a shipper to apply to the
courts for pecuniary redress for an alleged unreasonable rate held
that, until the protested rate was condemned by the commission, there
was no relief in the courts. This decision avoided a conflict of
jurisdiction between the courts and the commission. It would lessen
very greatly the value of the amendment of the act of June 29, 1906,
which requires thirty days' notice in a change of rate, which was
adopted, with a view of investing rate conditions with a greater
degree of stability than formerly. Under existing law, the shipper is
assured of that degree of stability, and can predicate his sales and
purchases accordingly. Under the amendment, shippers would never know
whether or not a rate is to become effective on schedule time, or at
any future time. The effect of the amendment would, therefore, be to
a considerable degree to nullify the permanency which this amendment
to the act to regulate commerce sought to impress upon the law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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