Harlan F. Stone

“ In the Fifteen Per Cent Case the Commission, acting under section 15a (2) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 USCA § 15a (2) , after an extensive hearing, granted permission to the carriers of the country to add a surcharge to established rates in amounts varying with different commodities but not exceeding in any case 10 per cent. of the basic rate. Thereupon the railroads of the country, including those operating in Louisiana, added the permitted surcharges to their interstate rates and most states authorized like increases in their intrastate rates. ”

“ The interstate rates after the addition of the authorized surcharges were lawful rates in interstate commerce, which was discriminated against by the failure to make corresponding increases in intrastate rates. This discrimination the Commission removed in the manner authorized by section 13 (4) , by prescribing minimum intrastate rates at the same level as the interstate rates. The order precluded any unauthorized interference with state regulatory power by providing that it should be effective only so long as the surcharges upon interstate rates should be maintained by the carriers. ”

“ It does not, in terms, command the Commission to find that each rate prescribed under section 15a is just and reasonable, as prerequisite to a general increase in rates. It provides only that the action of the Commission in raising rates so that they may yield a fair return is to be 'in the exercise of its power to prescribe just and reasonable rates,' with the qualification, in the proviso to the granted authority to increase rates, 'that the commission shall have reasonable latitude to modify or adjust any particular rate which it may find to be unjust or unreasonable. ”