ACT TO REGULATE COMMERCE. Carriers the act. (approved February 4, 1887, and in effect April 5, 1887 (24 Statutes at Large, 379 : 1 Supp. to Rev. Stat. U. S. 529; amended by act approved March 2. 1889 (25 Statutes at Large, 855 : 1 Supp. to Rev. Stat. "U. S., 684), and by act approved February 10, 1891 (26 Statutes at Large, 743 : 1 Supp. to Rev. Stat. U. S., 891), and by act approved February 8, 1895 (28 Statutes at Large, 643 : 2 Supp. to Rev. Stat. U. S., 369), and by act approved June 29, 1906 (34 Statutes at Large, 584), and by act approved April 13, 1908.) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Sec. 1. (As amended June 29, 1906, and April 13, 1908.) That the provisions of this Act shall apply to any corporation or any person or persons engaged in the transportation of oil or other commodity, except water and except transpor natural or artificial gas, by means of pipe lines, or partly by pipe lines tation subject to and partly by railroad, or partly by pipe lines and partly by water, who shall be considered and held to be common carriers within the mean: ing and purpose of this Act, and to any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by rail. road (or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment), from one State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and al o to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from any place in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transshipment, 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 an adjacent foreign country: Prorided, however, That the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving; delivering, storage, or handling of property wholly within portation wholly one State and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid. The term “common carrier" as used in this Act shall include express Express compa companies and sleeping car companies. The term “railroad," as used nies and sleeping in this Act, shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in car companies inconnection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any cor. poration operating a railroed, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease, and shall also include all switches, spurs, tracks, and terminal facilities of every kind used or necessary in the " railroad " a no transportation transportation of the persons or property designated herein, and also all freight depots, yards, and grounds used or necessary in the transportation or delivery of any of said property; and the term “transportation'' shall include cars and other vehicles and all instrumentalities and facilities of shipment or carriage, irrespective of ownership or of any contract, express or implied, for the use thereof and all services in connection with the receipt, delivery, elevation, and transfer in transit, ventilation, refrigeration or icing, storage, and handling of property transported; and it shall be the duty of overy carrier subject Act apply does not to traus within one State. cluded. What the terms and include. reason able. Passes ited. to the provisious of this Act to provide and furnish such transportation upon reasonable request therefor, and to establish through routes and just and reasonable rates applicable thereto. Charges must be All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the Just transportation of passengers or property as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, shall be just and reasonable; and every unjust and unreason. able charge for such service or any part thereof is prohibited and de. clared to be unlawful. prohib No common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall, after January first, nineteen hundred and seven, directly or indirectly, issue or give any interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation for Exceptions. passengers, except to its employees and their families, its officers, agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law; to ministers of religion, traveling secretaries of railroad Young Men's Christian Associations, inmates of hospitals and charitable and eleemosynary institutions, and persons exclusively engaged in charitable and eleemosynary work; to indigent, destitute, and homeless persons, and to such persons when transported by charitable societies or hospitals, and the necessary agents employed in such transportation; to inmates of the National Homes or State Homes for Dicabled Volunteer Soldiers, and of Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge and boards of managers of such Homes; to necessary care takers of live stock, poultry, and fruit; to employees on sleeping cars, express cars, and to linemen of telegraph and telephone companies; to railway mail service employees, postoffice inspectors, customs inspectors, and immigration inspectors; to newsboys on trains, baggage agents, witnesses attending any legal investigation in which the common carrier is interested, persons injured in wrecks and physicians and nurses attending such persons: Provided, That this provision shall not be construed to prohibit the interchange of passes for the officers, Interchange agents, and employees of common carriers, and their families; nor to prohibit any common carrier from carrying passengers free with the object of providing relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, or other calamitous visitation: Provided further, That the term "emFurloughed. pen. ployees” as used in this paragraph shall include furloughed, pensioned, stoned, and super: and superannuated employees, persons who have become disabled or plosees, etc., infirm in the service of any such common carrier, and the remains of a person killed in the employment of a carrier and ex-employees traveling for the purpose of entering the service of any such common carrier; Meaning of term and the term “families” as used in this paragraph shall include the families of those persons named in this proviso, also the families of persons killed while in the service of any such common carrier. Any common carrier violating this provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and for each offense, on conviction, shail pay to the Penalty. United States a penalty of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, and any person, other than the persons excepted in this provision, who uses any such interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation shall be subject to a like penalty. Juris. diction of offenses under this provision shall be the same as that provided for offenses in an Act entitled “An Act to further regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the States,'' approved February nineteenth, nineteen hundred and three, and any amendment thereof. From and after May first, nineteen hundred and eight, it shall be prohibited unlawful for any railroad company to transport from any State, Tercom m od 1. ritory, or the District of Columbia, to any other State, Territory, or the tles in which they District of Columbia, or to any foreign country, any article or comTimber and prod: modity, other than timber and the manufactured products thereof, ex: manufactured, mined, or produced by it, or under its authority, or cepted. which it may own in whole, or in part, or in which it may have any interest direct or indirect except such articles or commodities as may be necessary and intended for its use in the conduct of its business as a common carrier, tor employees, etc. in cluded. families. Jurisdiction. ܕ ܙ Railroad compa ules from ucts thereof Switch tions. Condeco Switch connec den. Any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act, upon application of any lateral, branch line of railroad, or of any shipper tendering interstate traffic for transportation, shall construct, maintain, and operate upon reasonable terms a switch connection with any such lateral, branch line of railroad, or private side track which may be constructed to connect with its railroad, where such connection is reasonably practicable and can be put in with safety and will furnish sufficient business to justify the construction and maintenance of the same; and shall furnish cars for the movement of such traffic to the best of its ability without discrimination in favor of or against any such shipper. If any common carrier shall fail to install and operate any such switch or connection as aforesaid, on application therefor in writing by any shipper, such shipper may make complaint to the Commission, as provided in section thirteen of this Act, and the Commission shall hear and investigate the same and shall determine as to the safety and practica. bility thereof and justification and reasonable compensation therefur and the Commission may make an order, as provided in section fifteen of this Act, directing the common carrier to comply with the provisions de mar, best of this section in accordance with such order, and such order shall be Commission. enforced as hereinafter provided for the enforcement of all other orders by the Commission, other than orders for the payment of money. Sec. 2. That if any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Aet shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any per: son or persons a greater or less compensation for any service rendered, or to be rendered, in the transportation of passengers or property, subject to the provisions of this Act, than it charges, demands, collects, or Injust discrim. receives from any other person or persons for doing for him or them 08tion de fined and forbid a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, such common carrier shall be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared to be unlawful. Sec. 3. "That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, cor- reasonable prefer poration, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. Every common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall, aceording to their respective powers, afford all reasonable, proper, and intercla ng e equal facilities for the interchange of traffic between their respective of traffic. lines, and for the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of passengers and property to and from their several lines and those connecting therewith, and shall not discriminate in their rates and charges between such con. Diser i mi necting lines; but this shall not be construed as requiring any such connecting common carrier to give the use of its tracks or terminal facilities to another carrier engaged in like business. Sec. 4. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act to charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or of like kind of property, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, for à shorter than for a longer distance over the same line, in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; but this shall not be construed as authorizing any common carrier within the terms of this Act to charge and receive as great compensation for a shorter as for a longer distance: Provided, however, That upon ap. plication to the Commission appointed under the provisions of this Act, such common carrier may, in special cases, after investigation by the leve carriers from Commission, be authorized to charge less for longer than for shorter the operation distances for the transportation of passengers or property; and the this section. I'ndue or un ence or advantage forbidden. Facilities for na tio be. Long and short haul provision. Commission authority to bas re. of the sa m e, Commission may from time time prescribe the extent to ribich such SEC. 5. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject combination with any other common carrier or carriers for the pooling Polines of of freights of different and competing railroads, or to divide between vision of earnings them the aggregate or net proceeds of the earnings of such railroads, or forbidden. aný portion thereof; and in any case of an agreement for the pooling SEC. 6. (Amended March 2, 1889. Following section substituted through route has been established, the several carriers in such through Printing route shall file, print, and keep open to public inspection, as aforesaid, and posting schedules the separately established rates, fares and charges applied to the through of rates, fares and transportation. The schedules printed as aforesaid by any such common cluding rules and carrier shall plainly state the places between which property and pasregulations affect sengers will be carried, and shall contain the classification of freight ing icing, storage, and in force, and shall also state separately all terminal charges, storage terminal charges, charges, icing charges, and all other charges which the Commission may and freight clas- require, all privileges or facilities granted or allowed and any rules or sifications, regulations which in any wise change, affect, or determine any part portation, and facilities defined in this Act. received for shipment, schedules showing the through rates established veyond the foreign country to which it accepts freight for shipment; Freight subject in any freight shipped from the United States through a foreign in case of failue's country into the United States the through rate on which shall not have to publish through been made public, as required by this Act, shall, before it is admitted into the United States from said foreign country, be subject to customs duties as if said freight were of foreign production. Thirty dars' No change shall be made in the rates, fares, and charges or joint public notice rates, fares, and charges which have been filed and published by any except after thirty days' notice to the Commission and to the public upon the schedules in force at the time and kept open to public inspecCommission may tion: Provided, That the Commission may, in its discretion and for modifs require good cause shown, allow changes upon less than the notice herein speci. fied, or modify the requirements of this section in respect to publishing, . rates of rates in ments of this sec. tion. |
