William Howard Taft

“ The next objection is that the state has a charter contract with the New York Central Railroad Company by which the latter is bound not to charge more than two cents a mile for passenger carriage between Albany and Buffalo, and that if the Transportation Act permits the Interstate Commerce Commission by such an order to enable the railroad company to violate its contract, it impairs the obligation of a contract in violation of section 10, article 1, of the Federal Constitution. ”

“ The defense of the state authorities was a collateral attack upon the order, to prevail in which they were obliged to show that the order was void on the face of the findings without regard to the evidence or the absence of it. In the case before us, the complainants are entitled to rely on the absence of any substantial evidence to sustain a material finding as a basis for attacking the order. ”

“ The evidence in this case shows that if the passenger and other rates here in controversy were to continue in force as ruled by the Public Service Commission of New York, the annual gross revenues of the interstate railroads operating in the State of New York from both interstate and intrastate passenger and milk business would be less by nearly twelve millions of dollars than those revenues if the intrastate fares and rates were on the same level as the interstate rates as fixed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. ”