UNJUST DISCRIMINATION. 349 



of commissioners, under such rules as to evidence of facts as the 

 commissioners may determine; the board determining the fact of 

 discrimination on evidence and notice to both sides, and its conclu 

 sions to be prima facie evidence as to fact of discrimination, or of 

 unreasonable charges. 



7. Additional police regulations, especially as to running connec 

 tions, and the passage of freight from one road to another. 



8. Limited power of the commissioners to require repair of roads, 

 improvement of roads or rolling stock, and increased accommoda 

 tions for passenger travel. 



9. Full and complete publicity of rates of fare and freight. 



10. Publicity of all important contracts and agreements between 

 railway companies, and of their business transactions generally. 



11. Greater uniformity and completeness of accounts, as well as 

 greater fullness and frequency of reports. 



12. Adequate penalties for the falsification or concealment of 

 earnings and expenditures, or other facts. 



13. Efficient means for the prompt enforcement of all provisions 

 of the law, at the expense of the State. 



The annual report of the Ohio Commissioner of Railroads dis 

 cusses at length the question of legislative enactments fixing railroad 

 rates. &quot;We give the following extract : 



For thirty years the British parliament and American legisla 

 tures have been making futile attempts to regulate this matter of 

 rates by statutory enactments. The sj^stem of &quot; equal mileage 

 rates,&quot; so persistently urged by certain advocates of reform, and so 

 often a subject of legislation, is evidently impracticable, and in con 

 travention of the recognized rules of trade and the established prin 

 ciples upon which the business of the country is conducted. The 

 advocates of equal mileage rates, however, object to the application 

 of this business custom to rates upon railways, because, as is said, 

 &quot; they are built for the public use,&quot; and every citizen or customer is 

 entitled equally to the benefits to be derived from them, regardless of 

 his means or condition ; and that an application of this rule would 

 give the large shipper, or man who traveled most, advantages that he 

 who shipped less or traveled little could not obtain. &quot;While we con 

 cede that the benefits and blessings of public improvements should 

 be the equal inheritance of all, and dispensed to each upon the 

 same conditions, a discrimination in rates upon account of quantity, 

 distance, or like contingency does not impair the proposition ; nor 

 can it be considered an unnatural or unjust rule which extends them 

 to all upon the same terms. A railway company makes more money, 

 with less annoyance and cost, in doing the business of the large 

 shipper, than that of the small one, though the rates per ton are less 

 to the former. 



There is, however, a kind of discrimination not only unjust, but 

 which should be discontinued and prohibited. W T hen the business 

 of shippers is similar in kind and quantity, and can be done by the 

 company at about the same cost, but through personal interest, 

 friendship, or for any other reason of thi? nature, a discrimination 

 is made in favor of one which is not extended to others, the act is 

 reprehensible, and violates the spirit and intent of the privileges 

 granted by the State. The same is true of localities ; no privileges 



