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Congress is empowered by the constitution to regulate commerce between the several states, and in 1887, under this authority passed the inter-state commerce law which is in force now and which controls and regulates our internal commerce. This law has for its object the enforcement of equitable dealings on the part of all common carriers with the public, and applies to all such carriers, whether by rail or water, as convey goods or passengers from one state, territory or district of the United States into another. The sovereign power of the states which on this point was delegated to congress, was not surrendered as regards traffic within the state. Consequently the states also have commerce laws which govern traffic within their individual boundaries and have railroad commissions which act in a similar capacity to the interstate commerce commission. This commission of the federal government is made up of five men empowered by the law to inquire into the methods by which carriers do business, and their rates of traffic charges. The law provides that all rates shall be just and reasonable and that there shall be no discrimination in favor of large shippers. Rates of traffic must be printed so that all shall be uniform under similar circumstances, on the same road. The books of the companies also must be opened at least once a year for inspection by the commission. Rebates to induce shipment by certain concerns are prohibited. Exceptions to the rules are made for carriage of property for the government, charitable institutions, and during the time of fairs and expositions. Mileage at reduced rates may be issued in certain amounts, as well as excursion and commutation tickets. Reduced rates are allowed for clergymen and passes may be issued for officers of railroads. Passes, as such, however, are prohibited. And yet with law and commissioners to enforce the law, discrimination in traffic rates is frequent, and pooling, with unlawful rebating and other sharp practices, is common. The Sherman anti-trust act is violated continually. Railway managers have been brought to account repeatedly by the commission for disregarding published tariffs by according lower rates to larger shippers. Grain rates applied to export business have been manipulated to such an extent that for a long time they have been demoralized, and little export grain has moved by rail at tariff rates. The same is true in the matter of dressed meats shipped by the great Chicago packing industries. All sorts of methods are used to control business by the railroads, and in order to grant special and illegal rates to secure big customers, roads have been known to go as far as paying a so-called agent to secure business for them, and the commission supposed to be paid this agent—sometimes amounting to 25 per cent of the freight charges—has been turned over at once by this agent to the shipper—an actual rebate. While the inter-state commerce commission has been able to discover gross wrongs, such as the merging of competitive roads so as to control traffic, it has been unable to redress many of these wrongs, or to provide against their recurrence, because of the weakness and inadequacy of the law under which they operate. About the only thing that has been done is to ask the Attorney General of the United States to begin numerous actions in equity against railroads for violating the inter-state and antitrust laws. These actions have fallen into three classes. One is that brought against the railroads in which preliminary injunctions were obtained which required them to apply tariff rates to traffic carried by them, and prohibited them from carrying on any inter-state traffic at any but the lawful published rates. Another case was the action against the great Chicago packers to prevent them from carrying on a beef trust or combination, which stopped all competition. Another was one against the Northern Securities Company and the several railroad companies which have been merged into it. CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS |