United States v. Illinois Terminal R. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 February 1909
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. ILLINOIS TERMINAL R. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois

168 F. 546

UNITED STATES v. ILLINOIS TERMINAL R. CO.

United States District Court, S.D. Illinois.

February 23, 1909

Syllabus by the court

Effective railroad regulation must begin with publicity of rates. The penalty for failure on the part of any carrier subject to the act to regulate commerce (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat 379 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3154)) to publish and file its rates is as severe as the penalty for failure to strictly observe such rates after filing.

The line of the defendant railway is entirely within the state of Illinois. The defendant is, however, engaged in the transportation of property moving wholly by railroad from one state to another state. It is, therefore, as much subject to the act to regulate commerce (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3154)) as it would be if it owned and operated a railway connecting the points in different states between which moved the commodities mentioned in the indictment.

By the amendment of June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584 (U.S. Comp St. Supp. 1907, p. 892), transportation by rail of property moving in interstate commerce by a carrier which has not filed its rates for such service is a misdemeanor.

William A. Northcott, U.S. Atty., Henry A. Converse and Joseph H Story, Asst. U.S. Attys., and John H. Marble, Atty. Interstate Commerce Commission.

Ashcraft & Ashcraft, and Edwin M. Ashcraft, Jr., for defendant.

HUMPHREY District Judge.

The defendant here was indicted under section 6 of the act to regulate commerce (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 380 (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3156)), as amended by the Hepburn act of June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584 (U.S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 895), for transporting by rail certain car loads of glass bottles, which were moving in interstate commerce, without having first filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission its schedules of rates and charges applicable to such transportation.

The defendant owns and operates a line of railway entirely within the state of Illinois, extending from the east bank of the Mississippi river, at Alton, Ill., in an easterly and southeasterly direction for a distance of about 16 miles. This railway line intercepts and makes junction with a number of trunk railway lines which extend eastwardly to points in other states than Illinois.

The indictment is in six counts. Each count recites the carriage by the defendant railway of a car load of glass bottles moving from a point in the state of Indiana to destination at Alton, Ill. Each car load so moving was received by the defendant at the junction point of its railway with one of the railways extending to the eastward, as above recited, and was by the defendant transported from such junction in the state of Illinois to Alton, Ill., where it was delivered to the consignee. The indictment recites that such transportation was so furnished without defendant having filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission any rate or charge whatever applicable to such transportation, or any evidence of the concurrence by the defendant in any rate or charge for such transportation theretofore filed by any of its connecting carriers.

The defendant by a plea of guilty has admitted all the material facts alleged in the indictment. The court, therefore, has the duty of imposing the penalty for the offenses set forth.

The original Cullom act for the regulation of interstate commerce, approved February 4, 1887, provided:

'That every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall print and keep for public inspection schedules showing the rates, fares and charges for the transportation of passengers and property which any such common carrier has established, and which are in force at the time upon its railroad as defined by the first section of the act.'

The Cullom act also provided that such schedules should be plainly printed in large type; that copies for the use of the public should be kept in every depot or station of such railroads for public inspection; that no advance in rates should be made except after 10 days' public notice; that copies of the schedules of rates should be filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission.

By the amendment of March 2, 1889, the above provisions were amplified and extended, carriers being required to publish and file the classifications of freight, and to state separately the terminal charges and any rules or regulations affecting or determining any part or the aggregate of the rates. By this amendment of March 2, 1889, the commission was also given power to prescribe the form of the schedules of rates, and to change such form from time to time as might be found expedient. The purpose of this amendment was evidently that which prompted the original Cullom bill. Effective railroad rate regulation must begin with publicity of rates. To be public the rates must be laid before the Interstate Commerce Commission, must be kept in the stations of the carriers for the information of the public, and must also be printed in such form that they shall be intelligible to the average shipper upon examination. All of this was perceived by the lawmakers 20 years ago, and the rules, based upon these considerations, then written into the law, have continued unchanged, except as they have been from time to time strengthened and amplified.

On February 19, 1903, Act Feb. 19, 1903, c. 708, 32 Stat. 847 (U.S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 880), the 'Elkins Act,' became law. Section 1 of this act contains the following provision 'The willful failure upon the part of any carrier subject to the said acts (the acts to...