D.—2b

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clerical force may be formed when it is known that as near as can now be estimated 110,000 books, papers, and documents, showing rates, fares, and charges for transportation, and contracts, agreements, oi arrangements between carriers in relation to inter-State traffic, have been filed in the office of the Commission, all of which required appropriate classification and systematic arrangement. It has been quite impossible to do more with these than to acknowledge the receipt, classify, and index them, and put them in order for reference. The organization of a general system upon which they might most usefully be made has not been attempted, nor even any systematic investigation of their contents, for the purpose of observing to what extent the provisions of the Act to regulate commerce is complied with in their preparation. This latter duty seems to be clearly contemplated by the Act. The Commission has felt it to be its duty not to exceed in its expenditures the appropriation made, unless compelled by a necessity that should be plainly imperative ; and steps, however desirable, that required, to give them effect, more clerical force than the appropriation would enable it to secure have therefore been postponed. Should it be within the power of the Commission at any time hereafter to deal with the subject effectively, it will endeavour to do so. It is within the knowledge of the Commission that some carriers have been advised by their counsel that the prohibition in the Act against an increase of rates, except on ten days' notification, does not apply to joint rates. The Commission does not admit this advice to be sound; but in case the Act should be amended, it is believed the prohibition should, in clear terms, be made to extend to joint rates. IV.— General Supervision of the Caebieijs subject to the Act. It is provided in the 12th section of the Act, "That the Commission hereby created shall have authority to inquire into the management of the business of all common carriers subject to the provisions of this Act, and shall keep itself informed as to the manner and method in which the same is conducted, and shall have the right to obtain from such common carriers full and complete information necessary to enable the Commission to perform the duties and carry out the objects for which it was created ; and for the purposes of this Act the Commission shall have power to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of all books, papers, tariffs, contracts, agreements, and documents relating to any matter under investigation, and to that end invoke the aid of any Court of the United States in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books, papers, and documents under the provisions of this section." This is a very important provision, and the Commission will no doubt have frequent occasion to take action under it. It will not hesitate to do so in any case in which a mischief of public importance is thought to exist, and which is not likely to be brought to its attention on complaint of a private prosecutor. There is every reason to believe, however, that some of the most serious evils which were notorious in the railway service before the passage of the Act, and were in the legislative mind as reasons for its enactment, have now almost ceased to exist. One of these was the giving of special and secret rebates. These were exceedingly common before the Act, and constituted one of the readiest means of making unjust discrimination. No provision in the Act to regulate commerce is more important than that which forbids them. But among all the complaints made to the Commission not one has charged a specific act in violation of this provision, and where a disregard of it has been suggested it has been by way of formal charge, and as an expression of suspicion only. In the litigated cases which have come before the Commission, involving an examination into railroad practices at important centres, there has been entire agreement in the proofs that special rates to individuals and secret rebates were no longer made ; a single exceptional instance only has come out in the proofs. Their condemnation by the law, and the provision made for their detection and punishment, have brought about this result. Further evidence in the same direction is furnished by the complaints of those who formerly had them that the law injuriously affects their business ; but these complaints, which are aimed at the justice and equity of the law, the public may bear with equanimity, satisfied that in this particular at least substantial benefit has come from its enactment. Complaints of unjust discrimination and the giving of undue and unreasonable preferences by the open rates are still frequent, and it is not to be denied that in the existing tariffs there are many rates which, as compared with others made by the same carriers, seem to be unfair and oppressive. But even as regards this species of injustice the good effects of the law are manifest. For whereas formerly the carriers made discriminations at pleasure, and gave preferences for which their own interest or convenience was deemed sufficient reason, the discriminations or preferences which are now complained of are such as the carriers understand they may be called upon to defend ; and they are aware that the defence, to be successful, must be based on grounds of substantial justice, or at least on grounds not palpably untenable. This necessity for defending the discriminations made may be expected to reduce very considerably their number, and has already done much toward bringing about more just proportions in the classification and rating of property transported. In the performance of its duty of supervision, the Commission has found it necessary to conduct a very extended and voluminous correspondence, which could not be presented in this place even in abstracts. A few letters from the Commission which laid down rules, or were of more than individual importance, are, however, given in an appendix hereto marked C. In connection with these letters, attention is called to the decision made by the Commission in the case of the Vermont State Grange versus the Boston and Lowell Railroad Company et al., that the railroads who unite in fast-freight lines are responsible for their rates, and bound to see that the tariffs are properly filed. V.—Complaints to and Adjudications by the Commission. The 9th section of the Act provides that " any person or persons claiming to be damaged by any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act may either make complaint to the Com-