THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT, Sec. 1 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, April 13, 1908, June 18, 1910, February 17, 1917, March 2, 1917, May 29, 1917, August 10, 1917, and February 28, 1920.] (1)1 That the provisions of this Act shall apply to common carriers engaged in 41 Stat. L., 474. Act applies to common carriers engaged in by railroad, or water. (a) The transportation of passengers or property-transportation wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by by railroad and water when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment; or by pipeline. (b) The transportation of oil or other commodity, transportation except water and except natural or artificial gas, by pipe line, or partly by pipe line and partly by railroad or by water; or intelligence. (c) The transmission of intelligence by wire or wire--transmission of less; -between what points Act ap United States. -transportation or transmission or through foreign country. from one State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or Territory of lies within 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 through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, or from or to any place in the United States to or from a foreign country, but only in so far as such transportation or transmission takes place within the United States. (2) The provisions of this Act shall also apply to such Act applies to transportation of passengers and property and transmission of intelligence, but only in so far as such transportation or transmission takes place within the United States, but shall not apply— transportation or transmission United States. only within intrastate (a) To the transportation of passengers or property, -inapplicable to or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of transportation. property, wholly within one State and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any place in the United States as aforesaid; intrastate transmission. (b) To the transmission of intelligence by wire or wire--inapplicable to less wholly within one State and not transmitted to or from a foreign country from or to any place in the United States as aforesaid; or 1 Do not apply to Porto Rico, Act of March 2, 1917, post, page 82. 7 Sec. 1 Act inapplicable to water trans rail sorbed by water line. (c) To the transportation of passengers or property by Py because mi a carrier by water where such transportation would not charges ab- be subject to the provisions of this Act except for the fact that such carrier absorbs, out of its port-to-port water rates or out of its proportional through rates, any switching, terminal, lighterage, car rental, trackage, handling, or other charges by a rail carrier for services within the switching, drayage, lighterage, or corporate limits of a port terminal or district. What included in term "common carrier." means "common carrier." in term road." "rail (3) The term "common carrier" as used in this Act shall include all pipe-line companies; telegraph, telephone, and cable companies operating by wire or wireless; express companies; sleeping-car companies; and all persons, natural or artificial, engaged in such transportation or transmission as aforesaid as common carriers for hire. "Carrier" Wherever the word "carrier” is used in this Act it shall be held to mean "common carrier." The term "railroad" 1 as used in this Act shall include all bridges, car floats, What included lighters, and ferries used by or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any common carrier operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease, and also all switches, spurs, tracks, terminals, and terminal facilities of every kind used or necessary in the transportation of the persons or property designated herein, including all freight depots, yards, and grounds, used or necessary in the transportation or delivery of any such What included property. The term "transportation" as used in this Act shall include locomotives, cars, and other vehicles, vessels, 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, in term "trans storage, and handling of property transported. The term "transmission" as used in this Act shall include the transmission of intelligence through the application of electrical energy or other use of electricity, whether by means of wire, cable, radio apparatus, or other wire or wireless. conductors or appliances, and all instrumentalities and facilities for and services in connection with the receipt, forwarding, and delivery of messages, communications, "Messages" de- or other intelligence so transmitted, hereinafter also collectively called messages. in term "transportation." What included mission." fined. 1 See Safety Appliance Acts, post, pages 182 et seq. Sec. 1 car rier duties; to nish transporta and just and rea (4)1 It shall be the duty of every common carrier sub-,,Common ject to this Act engaged in the transportation of passen- provide and furgers or property to provide and furnish such transporta- tion. tion upon reasonable request therefor, and to establish through routes and just and reasonable rates, fares, and Through routes charges applicable thereto, and to provide reasonable sonable rates. facilities for operating through routes and to make reasonable rules and regulations with respect to the Facilities and operation of through routes, and providing for reasonable routes. compensation to those entitled thereto; and in case of Divisions to be joint rates, fares, or charges, to establish just, reason- unduly preferenable, and equitable divisions thereof as between the carriers subject to this Act participating therein which shall not unduly prefer or prejudice any of such participating carriers. rules for through reasonable, not tial or prejudicial. or transmission and reasonable. messages, differ (5) All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property Transportation or in the transmission of intelligence by wire or wireless charges to be just as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, shall be just and reasonable, and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service or any part thereof is prohibited and declared to be unlawful: Provided, That messages by wire Classification of or wireless subject to the provisions of this Act may be ent rates. classified into day, night, repeated, unrepeated, letter, commercial, press, Government, and such other classes as are just and reasonable, and different rates may be charged for the different classes of messages: And provided further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent telephone, telegraph, and cable companies from entering into contracts with common carriers for the ex-exchange of servchange of services.2 Contracts for ices. sonable classifica sonable transporand practices re (6) It is hereby made the duty of all common carriers subject to the provisions of this Act to establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable classifications of property Just and reafor transportation, with reference to which rates, tariffs, tion of property for transportation regulations, or practices are or may be made or pre- required. scribed, and just and reasonable regulations and practices Just and rea affecting classifications, rates, or tariffs, the issuance, tation regulations form, and substance of tickets, receipts, and bills of lad-quired. ing, the manner and method of presenting, marking, packing, and delivering property for transportation, the facilities for transportation, the carrying of personal, sample, and excess baggage, and all other matters relating to or connected with the receiving, handling, trans 1 See section 15 (3) (6), post, pages 41 and 42. 2 Section 2 of the Act of May 27, 1921, relating to the landing and operation of submarine cables in the United States provides that such Act does not affect the jurisdiction of the Commission with respect to the transmission of messages. Sec. 1 34 Stat. L., 584. porting, storing, and delivery of property subject to the provisions of this Act which may be necessary or proper to secure the safe and prompt receipt, handling, transportation, and delivery of property subject to the provisions of this Act upon just and reasonable terms, and every unjust and unreasonable classification, regulation, and practice is prohibited and declared to be unlawful. (7)1 No common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall, after January first, nineteen hundred and seven, Free passes and directly or indirectly, issue or give any interstate free tion prohibited. ticket, free pass, or free transportation for passengers, Excepted except to its employees and their families, its officers, free transporta classes. agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law 2; 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 Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and of Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge 3; to necessary caretakers of live stock, poultry, milk, and fruit; to employees on sleeping cars, express cars, and to linemen of telegraph and telephone companies; to Railway Mail Service employees, post-office 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 Interchange of such persons: Provided, That this provision shall not be construed to prohibit the interchange of passes for the officers, agents, and employees of common carriers, and their families; nor to prohibit any common carrier from Free carriage of carrying passengers free with the object of providing of calamity. relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, or other 36 Stat. L., 539. calamitous visitation: And provided further, That this provision shall not be construed to prohibit the privilege Exchange of of passes or franks, or the exchange thereof with each between trans-other, for the officers, agents, employees, and their families of such telegraph, telephone, and cable lines, and the officers, agents, employees and their families of other com passes. passengers in case passes or franks mission and other carriers. 1 See section 22, post, page 74. See provision as to members of the National Guard, post, page 81. See provision as to trustees of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, post, page 81. |