Pierce Butler

“ Fort Benning is a United States military post in Georgia; the reservation includes 98,000 acres and has a population of more than 7,500. A railroad 6.8 miles long, built and owned by the United States, connects receiving and delivery tracks at the post, Fort Benning, with a station, Fort Benning Junction, at the intersection of the lines of the Seaboard and the Central. For more than eight years prior to October 16, 1932, the line between the junction and Fort Benning was operated by the Central under a license granted by the Secretary of War. ”

“ The Seaboard employs Page and Harris as its agents and pays them for performance of transportation over the leased line and that service is common carrier service within the jurisdiction of the Commission. The Central has not filed a similar tariff and does not perform or bear the cost of service corresponding to that covered by the Seaboard's tariff. Before the Seaboard could lawfully operate the line from the junction to the fort, it would have to obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity. ”

“ But they say that it is not directed to any party; it requires no one to do or to refrain from doing any act; it could not be enforced, obeyed or disobeyed; it did not speak to the future or contemplate any future effect because, on and after the date it was made, it had no significance 'except as a record of a certain completed act performed by the Commission.'
But overemphasis upon the mere form of the order may not be permitted to obscure its purpose and effect. By it the Commission meant to put an end to the tariff in question and the service of the Seaboard according to its terms. ”