Harlan F. Stone

“ Loading and unloading are included in the transportation service rendered by the railroads to shippers, the charge for it to shippers being covered by the line-haul tariffs. The Commission found that appellant's yard is the principal railroad terminal in Chicago for the receipt of livestock in carload lots, and that appellant holds itself out to the public as performing the loading and unloading service and permits it to be performed by no other. ”

“ It is enough that the loading and unloading are rail transportation services performed at a railroad terminal as a common or public calling by one who, in rendering it, engages in the transportation of property by railroad within the meaning of the Act. ”

“ If the failure to act in the case of yards other than the present one is to be taken as an administrative construction of the statute persuasive here, we would be forced to conclude that a jurisdiction which the statute has plainly conferred either on the Secretary or the Commission, has been lost, although, with respect to this appellant, jurisdiction has been consistently asserted by the Commission, while the Secretary has as consistently remained passive. There is a practical limit to which inquiry into collateral issues may be extended in pursuit of the trivial. ”

“ The principal question for decision upon this appeal is whether, in the services performed by appellant in loading and unloading livestock at its stockyards in Chicago, and specified by its tariffs filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, it is a common carrier subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, 24 Stat. ”