Interstate Commerce Commission, the present decision, it seems to me, goes far to make that Commission a useless body, for all practical purposes, and to defeat many of the important objects designed to be accomplished by the various enactments of Congress relating to interstate commerce. The Commission was established to protect the public against the improper practices of transportation companies engaged in commerce among the several states. It has been left, it is true, with power to make reports and to issue protests. But it has been shorn, by judicial interpretation, of authority to do anything of an effective character. It is denied many of the powers which, in my judgment, were intended to be conferred upon it. Besides, the acts of Congress are now so construed as to place communities on the lines of interstate commerce at the mercy of competing railroad companies engaged in such commerce. The judgment in this case, if I do not misapprehend its scope and effect, proceeds upon the ground that railroad companies, when competitors for interstate business at certain points, may, in order to secure traffic for and at those points, establish rates that will enable them to accomplish that result, although such rates may discriminate against intermediate points. Under such an interpretation of the statutes in question, they may well be regarded as recognizing the authority of competing railroad companies engaged in interstate commerce when their interests will be subserved thereby to build up favored centers of population at the expense of the business of the country at large. I cannot believe that Congress intended any such result, nor do I think that its enactments, properly interpreted, would lead to such a result.

P273 7374

XV

THE SOUTHERN BASING POINT SYSTEM

THE DAWSON, GA., CASE 1

PROUTY, Commissioner:

The complainant in this case is a mercantile organization representing the commercial interests of the city of Dawson, Ga. No question is made about its competency to prosecute this proceeding. The complaint is that freight rates now in force from New York and northeastern cities, from Cincinnati, Ohio, Nashville, Tenn., Chattanooga, Tenn., and New Orleans, La., to Eufaula, Ala., and Georgetown, Americus and Albany, Ga., as compared with those to Dawson, Ga., are in violation of the third section of the Act to Regulate Commerce, in that they work an undue preference against Dawson.

...

The class rates from the points aboved named are as follows: [Abridged. — ED.]

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RATES IN CENTS PER 100 POUNDS, EXCEPT CLASS F, WHICH IS

1 Decided March 27, 1899. Interstate Commerce Reports, Vol. VIII, pp. 142157. Other similar cases have been recently decided for Cordele, Ga. (Ibid., Vol. VI, 343); Griffin, Ga. (Ibid., Vol. VII, 225); Hampton, Fla. (Ibid., Vol. VIII, 503); Wilmington, S.C. (Ibid., Vol. IX, 118); and Tifton, Ga. (Ibid., Vol. IX, 160).

The commodity rate on sugar from New Orleans is, per hundred pounds, to Eufaula, Americus and Albany 18 cents, to Dawson 31 cents.

F. C. & P.

Lake City

Apalachicola

An examination of this map shows that the lines of the defendant Central of Georgia Railway Company reach Americus, Albany, Eufaula and Dawson, its outlying termini being, so to speak, Savannah upon the coast and Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery in the interior. The line of the defendant Georgia & Alabama Railway Company reaches Americus, Albany and Dawson, its termini being Savannah upon the coast and Montgomery in the interior. It also has a line extending from Columbus to Albany through Dawson, crossing the main line at Richland. The Plant System connects Albany with Brunswick upon the Atlantic seaboard.

Traffic from New York and other Atlantic cities may reach these different points, either all rail or by rail and ocean. The rate in the two cases is somewhat different, but one is supposed to be fairly the equivalent of the other. Traffic coming by ocean and rail would reach Savannah by water, from whence it might pass by either of the defendant lines to any one of the points in question, except Eufaula, which is only reached by the Central of Georgia Railway. Traffic coming all rail from the North would also ordinarily pass through Savannah, although it might reach these points through lines farther inland. The rate is the same by all routes. The distance from Savannah to these several points by the Central of Georgia Railway is

To Americus

To Dawson

To Eufaula

To Albany

Traffic passing over this line from Savannah would naturally, although not necessarily, pass through Americus and Dawson in reaching Eufaula, and through Americus in reaching Albany. The distance from Savannah by the Georgia & Alabama Railway is as follows:

To Americus

To Dawson

To Albany

199 miles

253 66

276 66

Traffic from Savannah to Albany by this line would pass through Dawson. The distance from Brunswick to Albany via