In re Interstate Commerce Commission

• Decision Date: 07 December 1892
• Citation: 53 F. 476
• Parties: In re INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

53 F. 476

In re INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. Illinois.

December 7, 1892

Thomas E. Milchrist, U.S. Dist. Atty., John P. Hand, Asst. Dist Atty., and Walter D. Dabney, special counsel, for Interstate Commerce Commission.

Lyman Trumbull, John P. Wilson, Williams, Holt & Wheeler, and Prussing, Hutchings & Goodrich, for Calumet & Blue Island Railway Company and the witnesses.

GRESHAM Circuit Judge.

June 18, 1892, the Interstate Commerce Commission made an order at Washington, requiring the Calumet & Blue Island Railway Company, the Joliet & Blue Island Railway Company, the Chicago & Southeastern Railway Company the Chicago & Kenosha Railway Company, and the Milwaukee, Bay View & Chicago Railway Company, and certain other railway companies, to appear at Chicago on July 13th, to answer an informal complaint, made by unknown persons, charging that the Illinois Steel Company had caused the four first-named companies to be organized for the purpose of operating their switches and side tracks at or near Chicago, and engaging in traffic by continuous shipment from places without the state of Illinois to places within that state, in connection with other named carriers, and had caused the last-named company to be organized for the purpose of engaging in like business in Wisconsin; that the steel company owned the five companies, and for six months had operated them, in connection with other named railroad companies, as a convenient device for evading the provisions of the interstate commerce act, and obtaining unjust preferences and illegal rates on interstate business. The five companies were particularly required to answer the following questions under oath:

'(1) Does any traffic contract, agreement, or arrangement, in writing or otherwise, exist between the companies above alleged to be under the control and operated by said Illinois Steel Company and any of the other companies with reference to interstate traffic? If so, state contract, agreement, or arrangement.

'(2) Are any tariffs of rates and charges for the transportation of interstate property in effect between said companies above alleged to be under the control of and operated by said Illinois Steel Company and said other railroad companies? If so, what are they, and what are the divisions thereof between the several carriers?

'(3) Have the companies alleged to be under the control of and operated by the Illinois Steel Company received interstate traffic from any of the other carriers above mentioned during the six months last past, or have they delivered any of said traffic to such other carriers during that time for any person, firm, or company other than the Illinois Steel Company? and, if so, to what extent?'

The commission met at the time and place appointed, and the companies alleged to be owned and controlled by the steel company, except the Calumet & Blue Island, appeared, and in writing, under oath, answered the three questions in the negative, and denied that during the six months previous to the entry of the order for the investigation they had engaged in interstate commerce. The other company, the Calumet & Blue Island, filed a verified answer, averring that it had not engaged in interstate traffic for six months before the filing of the alleged complaint; that no traffic agreement or arrangement existed between it and any of the alleged connecting companies; that no schedule of charges for the transportation of property from one state to another state was in effect between it and other connecting roads other than this: That on June 13, 1892, it united with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in a tariff of $2.75 per net ton on car lots of coal from points on the Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad and the Youghiogheny Northern Railroad to Joliet, by way of Chicago, of which it received 40 cents per net ton, that amount having long been the proportion of the through rate allowed to other carriers for the same haul between Chicago and Joliet; that on July 6, 1892, it entered into a similar contract with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railway Company. The answer denied that the company's road was operated as a device to evade the provisions of the act; denied that its operation resulted in giving the steel company illegal rates, or in affording it any kind of advantage or preference; and denied that it had neglected to file with the commission copies of any agreements or tariffs as required by the act.

Certain officers of the five railroad companies and an officer of the steel company appeared before the commission as witnesses in obedience to its subpoena, and having failed to elicit any facts from them which materially tended to support the charge of unlawful discrimination in favor of the latter company the commission demanded the stock books of the steel company and the stock books of the five railroad companies for inspection, and in that connection inquired of the witnesses whether they knew who owned the five companies, and especially whether the steel company owned them, or a majority of their stock. On the advice of counsel the witnesses refused to produce the books or answer the questions, and the commission applied to this court for an order to compel them to do both.

The application is based upon the twelfth section of the commerce act, which declares that the commission shall have authority to inquire into the management and business of all carriers engaged in commerce between the states; that it shall keep itself informed as to the manner and method in which such business is conducted, and have the right to obtain from such carriers full and complete information necessary to enable it to perform its...