30 GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



the latter are the actual shippers. If the reasonableness of previous 

 charges only may be investigated, the remedy is necessarily limited to the 

 collection of damages representing the difference between the rate actu- 

 ally charged and that which would have been reasonable and just. The 

 only person in a position to collect these damages would be the one who 

 had made the actual shipment, and to whom, having bought upon the 

 basis of the rate paid, the amount collected would constitute an addi- 

 tional and unreasonable profit. 



In the " Louisville and Nashville case," one of the earliest decided by 

 the Commission, it was declared that the dissimilar circumstances justi- 

 fying a higher charge for the short than for the long haul, under the fourth 

 section of the law, might exist, (a) as a result of the competition of car- 

 riers by water ; (6) as a result of competition by carriers not subject to 

 the interstate commerce law ; and (c), in rare and peculiar cases, as a re- 

 sult of competition of carriers subject to the law. Subsequently it was 

 laid down that if the rate for the longer haul was controlled by unregu- 

 lated competition, the carrier might make a lower charge, to meet such 

 competition, without application to the Commission ; but where the justi- 

 fying competition alleged to exist was that of carriers subject to the law, 

 application must be made to the Commission for permission to promul- 

 gate the lower rate, under the proviso permitting the Commission in 

 special cases to make exemption from the general rule of the long and 

 short haul clause. During November, 1897, the Supreme Court of the 

 United States decided that competition of railway carriers subject to the 

 act must be considered in cases arising under the fourth section, and that 

 where it exists sufficiently to constitute a controlling force the circum- 

 stances are dissimilar. If therefore the Commission find the existence 

 of such competition to a controlling degree, the rule of the fourth section 

 is inapplicable. The Commission is apparently of the opinion that this 

 construction practically eliminates the long and short haul clause from the 

 law. 



The Commission frankly acknowledges that its members are unable to 

 agree as to the wisdom of authorizing pooling contracts. "A majority," 

 says the report, "think it must occasion some improvement in the rate 

 situation at almost all points, and that it might altogether amend it at 

 many points." Though reminding the public that whatever beneficial 

 results pooling may accomplish must be secured through the restriction 

 of competition, a majority of the Commission are inclined to recommend 

 that the experiment, surrounded by suitable safeguards, be tried. Some- 

 thing, it is admitted, must be done, and the insistence of the railways, 

 whose officers are in a situation wisely to judge, that this is the proper 

 remedy is entitled to careful attention. Protest is entered against the 

 practice, akin to special pleading, of quoting a single sentence from some 

 report of the Commission as evidence of an opinion favorable to pooling. 

 The Commission is unanimous that to reverse the effect of the ."Trans- 

 Missouri decision," to repeal the anti-pooling clause and enact in its 

 place a pooling bill, would be little better than a crime against the people, 

 unless at the same time the Commission or some other tribunal was in- 



