Note 406 — Chapter XXXIII · FIXING RATES BY PUBLIC AUTHORITY.

The railroads would prefer a court to a Commission if any public body is to have power over rates. They know that proceedings in court are likely to be troubled with long delays, and great expense, and that courts are very delicate about determining what is a reasonable rate. In the Reagan case (154 U. S. 362) the Supreme Court says: “It has always been recognized that if the carrier attempted to charge a shipper an unreasonable sum the courts had jurisdiction to inquire into that matter and award to the shipper any amount exacted from him in excess of a reasonable rate; and, also, in a reverse case, to render judgment in favor of the carrier for the amount found to be a reasonable rate.”

In any case of suit by a shipper to recover damages for unreasonable charges the court would have to determine what was a reasonable rate in order to fix the measure of damages, but Chairman Knapp of the I. C. C. says he does not know of a case in which suit was ever brought (Sen. Com. 1905, p. 3301). The fact that very many complaints have been made of unreasonable rates and no suits brought in the courts indicates that court procedure is regarded as inadequate. Courts are by nature judicial, not legislative or executive. And the remedy which can be administered by them in these railroad cases is uncertain, limited, and indirect. (Sen. Com. p. 3362.)