David Josiah Brewer

“ It will be perceived that the section contemplates a change in rates, either by increase or reduction, and provides the conditions therefor; but of what significance is the grant of this privilege to the carrier, if the future rate has been prescribed by an order of the commission, and compliance with that order enforced by a judgment of the court in mandamus? The very idea of an order prescribing rates for the future, and a judgment of the court directing compliance with that order, is one of permanence. ”

“ The vice of this argument is that it is building up indirectly, and by implication, a power which is not, in terms, granted. It is not to be supposed that congress would ever authorize an administrative body to establish rates without inquiry and examination; to evolve, as it were, out of its own consciousness, the satisfactory solution of the difficult problem of just and reasonable rates for all the various roads in the country. ”

“ It will never do to make a provision prescribing the mode and manner applicable to all investigations and all actions equivalent to a grant of power in reference to some specific matter not otherwise conferred. ”

“ Congress might itself prescribe the rates, or it might commit to some subordinate tribunal this duty, or it might leave with the companies the right to fix rates, subject to regulations and restrictions, as well as to that rule which is as old as the existence of common carriers, to wit, that rates must be reasonable. There is nothing in the act fixing rates. ”

“ The reasonableness of the rate in a given case depends on the facts, and the function of the commission is to consider these facts and give them their proper weight. If the commission, instead of withholding judgment in such a matter until an issue shall be made and the facts found, itself fixes a rate, that rate is prejudged by the commission to be reasonable. ”

“ On the other hand, in—
'No railroad company shall charge, demand or receive from any person, company or corporation, an unreasonable price for the transportation of persons or property, or for the hauling or storing of freight, or for the use of its cars, or for any privilege or service afforded by it in the transaction of its business as a railroad company. ”

“ In England, while control had been given in respect to discrimination and undue preferences, no power had been given to prescribe a tariff of rates. In this country the practice has been varying. It will be interesting to notice the provisions in the legislation of different states. ”

“ The words and phrases efficacious to make such a delegation of power are well understood, and have been frequently used, and, if congress had intended to grant such a power to the interstate commerce commission, it cannot be doubted that it would have used language open to no misconstruction, but clear and direct. ”

“ Billions of dollars are invested in railroad properties. Millions of passengers, as well as millions of tons of freight, are moved each year by the railroad companies, and this transportation is carried on by a multitude of corporations working in different parts of the country, and subjected to varying and diverse conditions. ”

“ The act contemplates the flxing of rates, and recognizes the authority in which the power exists. Section 6 provides, among other things, 'that every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing the rates and fares and charges for the transportation of passengers and property which any such common carrier has established and which are in force at the time upon its route. ”