Potter Stewart

“ The issue presented is whether s 1 (6) of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, which requires carriers 'to establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable classifications of property for transportation, with reference to which rates, tariffs, regulations, or practices are or may be made or prescribed,' [1] is applicable to so-called all-commodity freight rates. The Commission, with three members dissenting, held that § 1 (6) does apply to such rates, and that the section was violated by the rate schedules here in question. ”

“ If a commodity rate results in an undue preference in favor of or an unreasonable prejudice against any person, locality, or description of traffic, the Commission may require that appropriate adjustments be made. ”

“ The latter are used when no rate has been published applying specifically to the movement in question, such specific rates being called commodity rates. The railroads carry, of course, a vast multitude of separate and distinct commodities, and the class rates are a convenient device for avoiding the publication of a like multitude of separate and distinct rates. ”

“ They also maintain hundreds of lower rates as exceptions to the classification, including commodity rates, that are not subject to the classification ratings nor to rules as to mixing of commodities in car-loads. * * * 'Class rates normally reflect the maximum of reasonableness on goods falling within the various classes of traffic. Commodity rates are established, and necessary or desirable exceptions to the classification are made, when circumstances and conditions suggest that the class basis is too high for application on the traffic. ”

“ The trailer-on-flatcar rates, unlike the all-commodity rates involved in the present case, are subject to a mixing rule requiring that the lading consist of at least two commodities, no one of which shall exceed 60% of the total volume of the lading. ”

“ The New Haven had physical clearance problems and equipment shortages which prevented its participation in this type of freight transportation, and during the first two months that the trailer-on-flatcar rates were in effect on competing railroads, the New Haven lost the equivalent of more than 350 cars of traffic from Boston to St. ”