Opinion of the Court.

our hands, because, it is asserted, the Circuit Court of Appeals considered and passed on the propositions, relied upon, and the action of that court relieves this court from the duty of entering upon an original investigation of the whole evidence to determine the entire field of controversy.

It requires only, however, a brief reference to the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals to show that this contention is unfounded. In substance, that court stated in its opinion that it considered that the rates to Chattanooga, which was in the southern territory, had been fixed by agreement of the carriers as had been the other rates in that territory; that as Nashville, which was also in the southern territory, was given a low rate, because of the action of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in exceptionally lowering its rates from Cincinnati to that point, the situation at Chattanooga entitled it to the same rates. The court, moreover, thought that the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which owned the line from Cincinnati to Nashville, was in no position, as the owner of a majority of the stock in the road from Chattanooga to Nashville, to avail of the competition at Nashville as a basis for charging the lesser rate for the longer haul through Chattanooga to Nashville. It was besides concluded that where a rate to a particular point was the product of agreement, which stifled competition, such rate could not become the basis upon which to predicate the right of a carrier to charge a lesser sum for the carriage of freight passing through that point to a more distant place, because of the competition at such more distant place. The court summed up its conclusions as follows (99 Fed. Rep. 63):

"We are pressed with the argument that to reduce the rates to Chattanooga will upset the whole southern schedule of rates, and create the greatest confusion; that for a decade Chattanooga has been grouped with towns to the south and west of her, shown in the diagram; and that her rates have been the key to the southern situation. The length of time which an abuse has continued does not justify it. It was because time had not corrected abuses of discrimination that the interstate commerce act was passed. The group in which Chattanooga is placed, shown by the diagram above, puts her on an equality

Opinion of the Court.

in respect to eastern rates with towns and cities of much less size and business, and much further removed from the region of trunk-line rates, and with much fewer natural competitive advantages. If taking Chattanooga out of this group and putting it with Nashville requires a readjustment of rates in the south, this is no ground for refusing to do justice to Chattanooga. The truth is, that Chattanooga is too advantageously situated with respect to her railway connections to the north and east to be made the first city of importance to bear the heavier burden of southern rates, when Nashville, her natural competitor, is given northern rates. The line of division between northern and southern rates ought not to be drawn so as to put her to the south of it, if Nashville is to be put to the north of it. And we feel convinced from a close examination of the evidence that, but for the restriction of normal competition by the Southern Traffic Association, her situation would win for her certainly the same rates as Nashville. It may be that the difficulty of readjusting rates on a new basis is what has delayed justice to Chattanooga. It may well be so formidable as to furnish a motive for maintaining an old abuse."

The decree which was entered, however, did not declare the rates charged to Chattanooga to be unreasonable, but simply affirmed the order of the commission directing that no greater sum be charged for the carriage of freight to Chattanooga, the shorter, than was exacted to Nashville, the longer, distance. As we have already shown, such a decree is not responsive to the conclusion that the rates to Chattanooga were in and of themselves unreasonable, since the right to continue to exact them was sanctioned, provided the traffic to Nashville was either abandoned or the rate to Chattanooga made the same as to Nashville.

Without taking at all into view the legal propositions announced by the Circuit Court of Appeals in its opinion, and conceding, without passing upon such questions, that they were all correctly decided, it is plain that all the premises of fact upon which the propositions of law decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals rest are at variance with the propositions of fact found by the commission, in so far as that body passed upon

Opinion of the Court.

the facts. From this it results that to decide the case in the aspect in which it is now presented we would be obliged to go into the whole evidence, as a matter of original impression, in order to determine the complex questions which the case presents. Among those which of necessity would arise for decision would be whether the original agreement fixing rates to the southern territory, made long since and acted on consecutively for years, was of such a nature as to cause those rates to be illegal, although they might be found to be just and reasonable in and of themselves. If not, whether Chattanooga was from its situation properly embraced in the southern territory, and, if not, whether the Louisville and Nashville Railroad had violated the law by exceptionally reducing its rates to Nashville. If it had not, did it follow, because the condition at Nashville gave that city an exceptionally low rate, that Chattanooga was in a position to be entitled, as a matter of right, to as low or a lesser rate?

To state these issues is at once to demonstrate that their decision, as a matter of first impression, properly belonged to the commission, since upon that body the law has specially imposed the duty of considering them. Whilst the court has in the discharge of its duty been at times constrained to correct erroneous constructions which have been put by the commission upon the statute, it has steadily refused, because of the fact just stated, to assume to exert its original judgment on the facts, where, under the statute, it was entitled, before approaching the facts, to the aid which must necessarily be afforded by the previous enlightened judgment of the commission upon such subjects. This rule is aptly illustrated by the opinion in Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Behlmer, (1900) 175 U. S. 648, in which case, after pointing out the same error of construction adopted and applied by the commission in the present case, the court declined to undertake an original investigation of the facts, saying (p. 675):

"If, then, we were to undertake the duty of weighing the evidence in this record, we would be called upon, as a matter of original action, to investigate all these serious considerations which were shut out from view by the commission, and were

Opinion of the Court.

not weighed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, because both the commission and the court erroneously construed the statute. But the law attributes prima facie effect to the findings of fact made by the commission, and that body, from the nature of its origanization and the duties imposed upon it by the statute, is peculiarly competent to pass upon questions of fact of the character here arising. In Texas & Pacific Railway v. Interstate Commerce Commission, ubi supra, the court found the fact to be that the commission had failed to consider and give weight to the proof in the record, affecting the question before it, on a mistaken view taken by it of the law, and that on review of the action of the commission the Circuit Court of Appeals, whilst considering that the legal conclusion of the commission was wrong, nevertheless proceeded as a matter of original investigation to weigh the testimony and determine the facts flowing from it. The court said (p. 238):

"If the Circuit Court of Appeals was of opinion that the commission in making its order had misconceived the extent of its powers, and if the Circuit Court had erred in affirming the validity of an order made under such misconception, the duty of the Circuit Court of Appeals was to reverse the decree, set aside the order and remand the cause to the commission in order that it might, if it saw fit, proceed therein according to law. The defendant was entitled to have its defence considered, in the first instance at least, by the commission upon a full consideration of all the circumstances and conditions upon which a legitimate order could be founded. The question whether certain charges were reasonable or otherwise, whether certain discriminations were due or undue, were questions of fact, to be passed upon by the commission in the light of all the facts duly alleged and supported by competent evidence, and it did not comport with the true scheme of the statute that the Circuit Court of Appeals should undertake, of its own motion, to find and pass upon such questions of fact in a case in the position in which the present one was.'

"We think these views should be applied in the case now un der review."

Counsel for Parties.

The decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals should be reversed with costs and the case be remanded to the Circuit Court with instructions to set aside its decree adjudging that the order of the commission be enforced, and to dismiss the application made for that purpose with costs, the whole to be without prejudice to the right of the commission to proceed upon the evidence already introduced before it or upon such further pleadings and evidence as it may allow to be made or introduced, to hear and determine the matter in controversy according to law.

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN dissented.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION v. CLYDE STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

SAME v. WESTERN AND ATLANTIC RAILROAD COM

PANY.

SAME v. CLYDE STEAMSHIP COMPANY.

APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH

CIRCUIT.

Nos. 68, 69, 70. Argued November 5, 6, 1900.- Decided April 8, 1901.

East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission, ante 1, followed.

THE statement of the case will be found in the opinion of the court.

Mr. L. A. Shaver for appellants. Mr. Assistant Attorney General Beck was on his brief.

Mr. Edward Baxter for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.