Edward Douglass White

“ The meaning of the law was not decided to be that one kind of competition could be considered and not another kind, but that all competition, provided it possessed the attributes of producing a substantial and material effect upon traffic and rate making, was proper under the statute to be taken into consideration. ”

“ One transportation line cannot be said to meet the competition of another transportation line for the carrying trade of any particular locality, unless the latter line could and would perform the service alone if the former did not undertake it. ”

“ The Commission thought it was constrained by the act to regard foreign and domestic traffic as like kinds of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, and that the action of the defendant company in procuring through traffic that would, except for the through rates, not reach the port of New Orleans, and in taking its pro rata share of such rates, was an act of 'unjust discrimination,' within the meaning of the act. ”

“ No such competition exists at Summerville, a small inland town. If it, and others like it, were permitted to share in the circumstances and conditions surrounding Charleston, and to get the benefit of the competition which Charleston enjoys, and they have not, then, ex necessitate, the South Carolina Railway will be called upon to elect between its through business and its local business, and in this election to give up the former. Thus, all stations on the line of road will pay local freight on hay, and the market, to the extent of imports from Memphis, will be destroyed. ”

“ We are also of opinion that the competition claimed by the appellees to exist between the different markets-particularly those of Memphis, Chicago, and the north Atlantic ports-to supply the trade of Charleston with the products mentioned, is not in reality the competition that affects rates from a particular locality, but is one that is regulated by the commercial circumstances existing at those points, applicable to business of that character and not connected with the usual conditions under which transportation is conducted ”

“ That the rates charged by it are not to the prejudice or disadvantage of New Orleans, and work no injury to that community, because, if said company is prevented from participating in said traffic, such traffic would move via the other routes and lines aforesaid without benefit to New Orleans, but, on the contrary, to its disadvantage. That the foreign or import traffic is upon orders by persons, firms, and corporations in San Francisco and vicinity buying direct of first hands in London, Liverpool, and other European markets ”

“ The circuit court held that one of the defendants had not been served with process so as to cause any decree which might be rendered to be conclusive, and, moreover, decided that the proof did not establish that the carrier, in the matter complained of, were under a common control and management for continuous shipment, within the meaning of the act, and therefore they were not, as to such carriage, amenable to the provisions of the act. ”

“ It involves a complete non sequitur to assert that because legal principles may not have been applied to a given case, on the assumption that the facts did not render their application necessary, therefore, in future cases, where it was found that the facts brought the controversy within the principles, they should not be applied. ”

“ Such considerations may constitute reasons for applying to the Commission for relief under the proviso clause of that section, but for reasons stated in our decisions of the cases above cited they do not justify carriers in departing from the rule of the 4th section without such a relieving order. Water competition, to justify lower long-haul rates, must exist between the point of shipment and the longer-distance point of destination. ”