FEDERAL RAILWAY REGULATION. 813 



the couclusions of the commission as to law and fact as merely 

 prima facie evidence subject to rebuttal. 



Publicity was provided for by authorizing the commission to 

 inquire generally into the business of all carriers subject to its 

 jurisdiction ; to keep continually informed regarding their busi- 

 ness methods, by requiring annual statistical reports ; authorizing 

 the commission to prescribe a uniform system of accounts ; re- 

 quiring the publication and filing of schedules of rates on all 

 traffic subject to the provisions of the law ; requiring railways to 

 file copies of agreements with other common carriers ; and giving 

 the commission authority to issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces 

 tecum. Competition was to be perpetuated by the prohibition of 

 pooling agreements. This and the second remedy have been 

 enforced with reasonable continuity. 



Charges for railway service may unjustly discriminate in 

 three ways : 



1. When differences are based upon the individuals for whom 

 services are performed. 



2. When charges upon different commodities are adjusted for 

 the purpose or so as in efi^ect to foster the movement of one at the 

 expense of the other in a degree not warranted by differences ap- 

 pertaining to the commodities themselves. 



3. When charges to or from particular localities favor some 

 to the disadvantage of others more than is justified by natural 

 conditions. 



Unjust discriminations between individuals are those most 

 readily observed, and consequently most obnoxious to the general 

 public, though it is doubtful whether their consequences approxi- 

 mate in gravity the serious and deplorable effects of those that 

 fall in the second and third classes. They are effected by means 

 of secret deviations from the published rate schedules, while those 

 between producers of different commodities or between localities 

 appear boldly on the face of tariffs and classifications. The secret 

 rates, rebates, drawbacks, allowances, or other illegal devices re- 

 sorted to in order to accomplish the first class of discriminations 

 are punishable by fine or imprisonment. The only remedies for 

 the other kinds are modification of the rate schedules or monetary 

 recompense for the damage suffered. The number of discrimina- 

 tions between individuals has been materially reduced by the 

 operation of the present law, but that they have by no means 

 disappeared is evident from the following extract, which, as it is 

 taken from a recent issue of a railway paper of high standing, 

 may be regarded as ex cathedra : 



" At present no railway man dares to assist the commission to 

 information against another road, no company dares to be the 

 active instrument in bringing complaint against another. It has 



