304. Section 6 as amended. SECTION 6. 305. History and amendment of the section. 306. Effect of publication. 307. The published rate conclusive. 308. Failure to post rate in stations. 309. Claims for misrouting. 310. Status of carriers, as shippers or consignees. 311. What is included in schedules. 312. What is sufficient publication and filing. 313. Joint tariffs and through rates. 314. Responsibility for through rates. 315. Published joint rates must be duly authorized. 316. The commission's power of modification as to filing of tariffs. § 304. Section 6 as amended.-SEC. 6. (Amended March 2, 1889. Following section substituted June 29, 1906. Amended June 18, 1910.) That every common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall file with the commission created by this Act and print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing all the rates, fares, and charges for transportation between different points on its own route and between points on its own route and points on the route of any other carrier by railroad, by pipe line, or by water when a through route and joint rate have been established. If no joint rate over the through route has been established, the several carriers in such through route shall file, print, and keep open to the public in [Printing and posting of schedules of rates, fares and spection, as aforesaid, the separately established rates, fares and charges applied to the through transportation. The schedules printed as aforesaid by any such common carrier shall plainly state the places between which property and passengers will be carried, and shall contain the classification of freight in force, and shall also state separately all terminal charges, storage charges, icing charges, and all other charges which the Commission may require, all privileges or facilities granted or allowed and any rules or regulations which in any wise change, affect, or determine any part or the aggregate of such aforesaid rates, fares, and charges, or the value of the service rendered to the passenger, shipper, or consignee. Such schedules shall be plainly printed in large type, and copies for the use of the public shall be kept posted in two public and conspicuous places in every depot, station, or office of such carrier where passengers or freight, respectively, are received for transportation, in such form that they shall be accessible to the public and can be conveniently inspected. The provisions of this section shall apply to all traffic, transportation, and facilities defined in this Act. [Printing and posting of schedules of rates on freight car- Any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act receiving freight in the United States to be carried through a foreign country to any place in the United States shall also in like manner print and keep open to public inspection, at every depot or office where such freight is received for shipment, schedules showing the through rates established and charged by such common carrier to all points in the United States beyond the foreign country to which it accepts freight for shipment; [Freight subject to customs duties in case of failure to pub- and any freight shipped from the United States through a foreign country into the United States the through rate on which shall not have been made public, as required by this Act, shall, before it is admitted into the United States from said foreign country, be subject to customs duties as if said freight were of foreign production. [Thirty days' public notice of change in rates must be given.] No change shall be made in the rates, fares, and charges or joint rates, fares, and charges which have been filed and published by any common carrier in compliance with the requirements of this section, except after thirty days' notice to the Commission and to the public published as aforesaid, which shall plainly state the changes proposed to be made in the schedule then in force and the time when the changed rates, fares, or charges will go into effect; and the proposed changes shall be shown by printing new schedules, or shall be plainly indicated upon the schedules in force at the time and kept open to pub [Commission may modify requirements of this section.] lic inspection: Provided, That the Commission may, in its discretion and for good cause shown, allow changes upon less than the notice herein specified, or modify the requirment of this section in respect to publishing, posting, and filing of tariffs, either in particular instances or by a general order applicable to special or peculiar circumstances or conditions. [Joint tariffs must specify names of carriers participating. The names of the several carriers which are parties to any joint tariff shall be specified therein, and each of the parties thereto, other than the one filing the same, shall file with the Commission such evidence of concurrence therein or acceptance thereof as may be required or approved by the Commission, and where such evidence of concurrence or acceptance is filed it shall not be necessary for the carriers filing the same to also file copies of the tariffs in which they are named as parties. [Copies of contracts, agreements or arrangements relating Every common carrier subject to this Act shall also file with said Commission copies of all contracts, agreements, or arrangements with other common carriers in relation to any traffic affected by the provisions of this Act to which it may be a party. [Commission may prescribe forms of schedule.] The Commission may determine and prescribe the form in which the schedules required by this section to be kept open to public inspection shall be prepared and arranged and may change the form from time to time as shall be found expedient. [No carrier shall engage in transportation unless it files and No carrier, unless otherwise provided by this Act, shall en-gage or participate in the transportation of passengers or property, as defined in this Act, unless the rates, fares, and charges upon which the same are transported by said carrier have been filed and published in accordance with the provisions of this [Published rates not to be deviated from.] Act; nor shall any carrier charge or demand or collect or receive a greater or less or different compensation for such transportation of passengers or property, or for any service in connection therewith, between the points named in such tariffs than the rates, fares, and charges which are specified in the tariff filed and in effect at the time; nor shall any carrier refund or remit in any manner or by any device any portion of the rates, fares, and charges so specified, nor extend to any shipper or person any privileges or facilities in the transportation of passengers or property, except such as are specified in such tariffs: Provided, ["Carrier" means "common carrier."] That wherever the word "carrier" occurs in this Act it shall be held to mean common carrier.” 66 [Preference and expedition of military traße in time of war.] That in time of war or threatened war preference and precedence shall, upon the demand of the President of the United States, be given, over all other traffic, to the transportation of troops and material of war, and carriers shall adopt every means within their control to facilitate and expedite the military traffic. [Commission may reject schedules.] The Commission may reject and refuse to file any schedule that is tendered for filing which does not provide and give lawful notice of its effective date, and any schedule so rejected by the Commission shall be void and its use shall be unlawful. [Penalty for failure to comply with regulation.] In case of failure or refusal on the part of any carrier, receiver, or trustee to comply with the terms of any regulation adopted and promulgated or any order made by the Commission under the provisions of this section, such carrier, receiver, or trustee shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each such offense, and twenty-five dollars for each and every day of the continuance of such offense, which shall accrue to the United States and may be recovered in a civil action brought by the United States. [Carrier to furnish written statement of rate.] If any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act, after written request made upon the agent of such carrier hereinafter in this section referred to, by any person or company for a written statement of the rate or charge applicable to a described shipment between stated places under the schedule or tariffs to which such carrier is a party, shall refuse or omit to give such written statement within a reasonable time, or shall misstate in writing the applicable rate, and if the person or company making such request suffers damage in consequence of such refusal or [Damages for misstatement of rate.] omission or in consequence of the misstatement of the rate, either through making the shipment over a line or route for which the proper rate is higher that the rate over another available line or route, or through entering into any sale or other contract whereunder such person or company obligates himself or itself to make such shipment of freight at his or its cost, then the said carrier shall be liable to a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars, which shall accrue to the United States and may be recovered in a civil action brought by the United States. IName of carrier's agent to be posted.] It shall be the duty of every carrier by railroad to keep at all times conspicuously posted in every station where freight is received for transportation the name of an agent resident in the city, village, or town where such station is located, to whom application may be made for the information by this section required to be furnished on written request; and in case any carrier shall fail at any time to have such name so posted in any station, it shall be sufficient to address such request in substantially the following form: "The Station Agent of the Company at Station," together with the name of the proper post-office, inserting the name of the carrier company and of the station in the blanks, and to serve the same by depositing the request so addressed, with postage thereon prepaid, in any post-office. § 305. History and amendment of the section. This section has been extensively amended; first in 1889, in the first series of amendments made to the act, which provided for printing of the schedule and posting in two public and conspicuous places, prohibited reduction of rates without three days' notice, and made a more specific provision as to the power of the Commission in prescribing different schedules, rates, fares and charges. The section was also amended by the so-called Elkins Act of 1903 (infra, § 422), in the requirement of publication and the invariable application of the tariff rates, making the rate conclusive as against the carrier. In the amendments of 1906, the section was substantially rewritten. The important changes were, first, the requirement of the same publication of the joint rate as of the separate rates. Theretofore the measure of publicity given to joint rates was prescribed by general order of the commission. Second, change in the rates, either separate or joint, was prohibited except after thirty days notice, while before the amendment, ten days notice was required of an increase and three days notice of a decrease. Third, the requirement of a separate printing and posting, not only of terminal charges and all other charges which the commission might require, and all privileges or facilities granted or allowed. Fourth, the requirement as to posting and notice could be modified on good cause shown. The section was also amended by the act of 1910, in authorizing the commission to reject any schedule tendered for filing which did not provide an effective date. The failure of a carrier to comply with the terms of any regulation adopted under the section was penalized, and the carrier was required to furnish a written statement of rate on request, made subject to damages for any mistake or omission of a rate, and it was made the duty of the carrier to keep the name of its agent posted in its station where freight was received for transportation. The importance of these successive changes should be considered in connection with the decisions of the commission and of the court construing the section at the different periods. § 306 (234.) Effect of publication.-In Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Co. v. Hefley, 158 U. S. 98, 39 L. Ed. 910 (1895), the supreme court decided that all railroads carrying interstate freight were subject to the provisions of the act to regulate commerce, and that the only rule of compensation which can be followed in regard to interstate shipments in the rate ex |