Harlan F. Stone

“ The position of the Interstate Commerce Commission is in substance that the order is not to be construed as prescribing Illinois intrastate commutation fares for the Chicago & North Western because the order was unattended by the procedure which the Commission regards as the appropriate basis for such an order, and consequently that the Commission did not have in mind or intend that the order should have that effect. ”

“ In view of the Commission's construction of its order, and the grounds upon which it rests, we can only conclude that there is at least serious doubt whether the 1942 proceeding and the order which resulted from it were ever intended by the Commission to increase the intrastate rates in question. Since the Commission alone is authorized to wield the constitutional power to set aside state-established intrastate rates by prescribing intrastate rates itself, state power cannot rightly be deemed to be supplanted so long as the Commission's exercise of its authority is left in serious doubt. ”

“ And for purposes of this case we may assume, without deciding, that intrastate rates which have once been prescribed by § 13 orders may be modified by a blanket order raising or lowering the level of intrastate and interstate rates, even though the Commission makes no new findings of discrimination but leaves that question subject to later inquiry upon applications filed in particular cases. ”