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shipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or in an adjacent foreign country. (Sec. 1.)

Term "Railroad" Defined.

Third: The term "railroad," as used in this first section, is also defined to include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term “transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. (Sec. 1.)

It will thus be seen, by a perusal of the first section of the law, that its language embraces all common carriers of passengers or property, doing business with more than one State, whether such carriers are natural persons, or corporations; whether they are aliens, or citizens, or foreign or domestic corporations.

Under the broad language of the first section, Express and Transportation companies are likewise included in the law, when their business runs into different States.

And Warehousemen and Storage-keepers are perhaps also embraced within the meaning of the law, where property is intrusted to their care, and they undertake to deliver it in another State, because the concluding language of the first section prescribes that all charges made "for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property " shall be reasonable and just.

Internal State Commerce Not Affected.

Fourth It is expressly provided in the Act, that its provisions shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of property, wholly within one State, and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or territory as aforesaid. (Sec. 1.)

This exception was undoubtedly incorporated in the Act, in deference to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, which hold that the power of Congress does not extend to regulating commerce completely internal. (Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat., 1.)

A common carrier, accordingly, may transact two classes of business, viz., one wholly within any State-in which case the business is un

CHAPTER III.

RATES, CHARGES, AND FARES WHICH COMMON

BY

CARRIERS MAY COLLECT.

Y the last paragraph of Section 1. the compensation of common carriers is fixed, and it is there declared that "all charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property, shall be reasonable and just; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful." (Sec. 1.)

And the fourth section of the Act makes it unlawful for the carrier to charge or receive any greater compensation for a shorter than for a longer haul, irrespective of the question as to whether such compensation is "reasonable and just." It is an absolute prohibition. (Sec. 4.)

First The first question which naturally

14

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Congress to fix the charges of common carriers. Is this a "regulation of commerce" within the meaning of the Constitution?

Some light is thrown upon this matter by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States (Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. $., 113), where the general subject is fully examined, and where the court held, that, under the powers inherent in every sovereignty, a government may regulate the conduct of its citizens towards. each other, and, when necessary for the public good, the manner in which each shall use his own property. It has in the exercise of these powers been customary in England from time. immemorial, and in this country from its first colonization, to regulate ferries, common carriers, hackmen, bakers, millers, wharfingers, inn-keepers, etc., and in so doing to fix a maximum of charge, to be made for services rendered, accommodations furnished, and articles sold. When the owner of property devotes it to a use, in which the public has an interest, he, in effect, grants to the public an interest in such use, and must, to the extent of that interest, submit to be controlled by the public for the common good as long as he maintains the use.