APPEXDTX. 685 



152. It is not a valid excuse for refusal to furnish a fair allotment of a 

 certain class of cars that they can be more profitably employed, and can supply 

 the wants of a larger number of shippers upon another portion of the line. 



162. Underbilling, a device by which a shipper pays for the transportation 

 of a less quantity of freight than is actually carried, and thereby obtains a 

 reduced rate upon the gross shipment, is forbidden by the act to regulate 

 commerce. 



172. Classification of dried fruits and raisins, both California products, in 

 diiferent classes, taking different rates of freight, works an injustice to shippers. 

 In all matters of classification, clearness and simplicity should be aimed at, 

 and irregularities and inconsistencies should be eliminated. 



180. Trade centers of large commercial towns are not, as a matter of right, 

 entitled to have more favorable rates than the smaller towns for which they 

 form distributing centers ; and if carriers will give to such smaller towns rates 

 as favorable as to the larger, the Commission will not interfere. 



181. The fact that, under rates which are impartially arranged as between 

 large and small towns, one large distributing center may have an advantage 

 over another in competition for the business of the small towns, does not make 

 out a case of undue preference in favor of the one distributing center as against 

 the other. Impartial rates are not rendered illegal by their effect upon the 

 business of localities. 



182. A distributing center, however great or important, can not demand, as 

 a matter of right, that the rates from a common source of supph' to more dis- 

 tant and smaller towns shall be made up of the sum of the rate to itself and 

 the rate thence to such smaller towns ; but the carriers may make rates 

 from the common source of supply to the smaller towns directh', as single 

 rates ; and if the single rate is less than the sum of the two which are made 

 to and from the distributing center it is not, for that reason, necessarily 

 objectionable. 



186. The method of testing the freight rates of a railroad by the rate per 

 ton per mile is one by which these rates may be brought down to the narrowest 

 point of scrutiny, and in this sense is valuable, but it is like looking at them 

 with a microscope, for it ignores all other tests except that which it alone 

 furnishes, and does not take into consideration any of the surrounding circum- 

 stances and conditions that enter into the making of the rate, no matter how 

 compulsory or imperious these may be, and for this reason it can not be 

 considered a controlling rule in determining the reasonableness of rates. 



187. To determine the reasonableness and justness of any freight rate made 

 by a railroad company, all the surrounding circumstances and conditions must 

 be considered, as well as the rights of the shipper, and if these circumstances 

 and conditions are so compulsory or imperious that they fairly and justly 

 exercise any controlling influence in the making of a rate, they can not be 

 disregarded in a proceeding in which the reasonableness and justness of the 

 rate is presented for determination. 



188. The words "substantially similar circumstances and conditions," as 

 found in the second and fourth sections of the act to regulate commerce, in 

 certain important particulars define the rights and duties of carriers and the 

 rights of shippers as well. For example: If the carrier claims to act under the 

 compulsion of circumstances and conditions of his own creation or convenience 

 in the making of an exceptional rate, then these will not avail him. Or if the 

 carrier claims to act under a compulsion of circumstances and conditions in the 

 making of an exceptional rate which he could obviate by reasonably fair and 

 just exertion on his part, then they will not avail him. But if the carrier is in 

 good faith acting under a compulsion of circumstances and conditions beyond 

 his control, not of his own connivance, and which he could not obviate by any 

 reasonably fair and just effort on his part, and to avoid large loss adopts 

 exceptional rates on a portion of his line, not unreasonable in themselves, and 

 forced upon him by the action of an independent state railroad, which is not 

 subject to the act to regulate commerce, and which is operating a slightly 



