exceeded or were inconsistent with the Constitution. Furthermore, the Supreme Court decided that action in a court to recover losses due to an alleged unreasonable rate cannot be upheld unless the commission has already rendered a decision as reasonableness of the rate against which complaint is made, and it has also maintained that negative orders of the commission are not subject to judicial review, so that a shipper has no right of appeal to the courts from the commission's ruling that a rate is reasonable and from its dismissal of a complaint after due hearing. Among the important decisions relating to the commission's powers handed down by the Supreme Court," one relating to the revivified long-and-short-haul clause, must be mentioned. In 1914 the court" upheld the commission in its interpretation of its powers under this clause of the act. It was held that Congress in eliminating the phrase, “similar circumstances and conditions" had granted full authority to the commission to consider competitive conditions and that this power involved the right to perform those acts by means of which alone such power could be exercised. The court did not hold valid the objection that this section of the law delegated legislative power to the commission.

Even prior to the passage of the Mann-Elkins Act the commission had called the attention of Congress to the need of a valuation of railroad property. In its annual report for 1908 the commission said on this point:

No court or commission or accountant or financial writer would for a moment consider that the present balance-sheet statement purporting to give the "cost of property" suggests, even in a remote degree, a reliable measure either of money invested or of present value. Thus, at the first touch of critical analysis, the balance sheets published by American railways are found to be

50 Other important decisions may be noted: 234 U. S., 548, sustaining the power of the commission over pipe lines granted by the act of 1906; 240 U. S., 294, sustaining the power of the commission to prescribe the proportion of the through rate to be granted to the tap line, and sustaining the commission's powers under the act of 1910 to establish joint rates; 224 U. S., 194, sustaining the commission's right to require reports from water carriers, and upholding the constitutionality of Section 20, which gives the commission authority over accounts and reports.

31

1234 U. S., 476, 495.

inadequate. They are incapable of rendering the service which may rightly be demanded of them. One cure seems possible for such a situation, and one only, and that is for the government to make an authoritative valuation of railway property, and to provide that the amounts so determined should be entered upon the books of the carriers as the accepted measure of capital assets. Under no other conditions can the commission complete in a satisfactory manner the formulation of a standard system of accounts.

Congress complied with this recommendation in the act of March I, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 701), which directed the commission to appraise the property of all common carriers subject to the act to regulate commerce. An inventory was to be made of the property to be valued, and the cost of reproduction both new and less depreciation was to be ascertained. After initial valuation, the commission was required to keep the information up to date. Certain powers were granted the Commission during this period to prevent restraint of competition. The Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 566), made it unlawful after July 1, 1914, for any common carrier subject to the act to regulate commerce to own, lease, operate, control, or have any interest in any competing carrier by water. The commission was empowered to determine questions of fact as to competition, after full hearing, on the application of any railroad company or other carrier, and to permit beyond July 1, 1914, such ownership or operation of vessels plying elsewhere than through the Panama Canal, when it found it to be in the interest of the public and not in restraint of competition. Jurisdiction was conferred upon the commission in 1914 to administer certain provisions of the Clayton Act approved October 15, 1914 (38 Stat. L., 730), aimed at unlawful restraints and monopolies, in so far as the law applies to carriers subject to the Interstate Commerce Act. The commission was also authorized to investigate violations of the act by carriers and to require the guilty parties to desist from illegal practices.

Meanwhile, during this period of rehabilitation and extension of the commission's powers, Congress had directed its attention to broadening its authority in regard to the safety of passengers, employees, and property. Its duties in this field and the position of the Chairman in the mechanism for adjustment of labor disputes on the railroads in the first period of its history have already

tion therewith.' cent of the cars in trains operated w should have such brakes used and oper locomotive drawing the train, and tha such train which were associated togeth also have their brakes so used and c was empowered to increase, after fu percentage of cars in any train required or train brakes which must have their b the engineer of the locomotive drawing

It was also provided

The marked decline in deaths and i operation of this law and the act of I 1909 to urge "the full measure of p employees are entitled." It was point sound maintenance of such appliances hand holds, running boards, and hand sary" for the safety of employees, inspectors could not exercise effective s they were not covered by the law and their use in defective condition. Stat. L., 298), Congress complied wit

32

By

On August 1, 1906, the commission ext to 75 per cent and on June 6, 1910, to 85 p

mendation and required it to designate within six months, the number, dimensions, location, and manner of application to cars used by carriers engaged in interstate commerce, of the appliances mentioned above. The matter was taken up by a joint committee representing the commission, railroad employees, and the carriers, which considered the matter and virtually agreed upon the regulations to be adopted. By order of October 13, 1910, as revised by order of March 13, 1911, definite standards were prescribed and an extension of five years from July 1, 1911, was granted as to some of the appliances mentioned in the act, to give the railroads time to render their equipment conformable to the specified standards.

53

By the act of May 30, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 476), the duty was imposed upon the commission of enforcing the provisions of the act which made it unlawful for interstate common carriers to use any locomotive "not equipped with an ashpan which can be dumped or emptied and cleaned without the necessity of any employee going under such locomotive." The law became effective January 1, 1910. In the interval of nineteen months between the approval of the law and the date on which it became effective the carriers subject to the act were enabled to equip nearly all their locomotives as required. In 1904 the commission reported that practically all the locomotives were properly equipped, and that the principal duty of the carriers in this matter was to maintain in suitable condition the devices installed.

By the act of February 17, 1911 (36 Stat. L., 913), various duties were imposed upon the commission relating to the inspection of locomotive boilers. A Chief Inspector and two assistant inspectors were to be appointed by the President, with the concurrence of the Senate, while the commission was required to appoint fifty district inspectors. Rules for locomotive boiler inspection of each carrier were to be filed with the Chief Inspector within three months after the approval of the act and after hear

53 On November 2, 1915, the commission further extended the time for compliance with certain paragraphs of the order to July 1, 1917, and thereafter, on account of war conditions, extensions of time were granted as follows: by order of March 1, 1917, to March 1, 1918; by order of February 1, 1918, to September 1, 1919; and by order of August 29, 1919, to March 1, 1920.

any time to call upon the Chief Insp accident and to make it public, if it dee

After the appointment of the Chief tants, a public hearing was held in Was sentatives of organizations of employed and thereafter the commission approve submitted by the Chief Inspector gover motive boilers. An organization was inspection and testing of the approxim locomotives then subject to the act. Fi established after the consideration had of locomotives, density of traffic, num tion and repair points, and other rel inspectors were appointed through ex the auspices of the Civil Service Commi from the several branches of the locon

After the district inspectors were pla locomotives with serious defects in par inspection law. Although there was such cases, inspectors were instructed were liable to cause accidents to the voluntary remedial action. This situat of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. L., 1192), requirements of the Boiler Inspection A