Public Service Commission v. Northern Central Railway Co.

Thomas, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. These appeals are from a decree of the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City, dissolving in part a preliminary injunction theretofore granted against the Public Service Commission of Maryland, and making said injunction perpetual as to other features of the order of said Commission. On the 11th of January, 1911, the Baltimore Drug .Exchange and certain other trade associations filed their petition or complaint with the Public Service Commission of Maryland against the Baltimore Belt Railroad Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the Northern Central Railway Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company, the Western Maryland Railway Company, and the Union Railroad Company, in which, after alleging that the petitioners were organized for the purpose of promoting the business of their members, and that their principal offices were in Baltimore City, they charged that the defendants were common carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers and property between points in the State of Maryland, and as such were subject to the provisions of the Act of 1910, creating the Public Service Commission of Maryland; that the defendants charged for local switching movements of carloads of freight between points on their lines in Baltimore City, or Baltimore County adjacent thereto, certain class rates; that the class rates of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were six cents per one hundred pounds for the first, second and third classes of freight, and five cents per one hundred pounds for the fourth, fifth and sixth classes; that the class rates charged by the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company and the Union Railroad Company were six cents per one hundred pounds for first-class freight, five cents per one hundred pounds for the second and third classes of freight, and four cents per one hundred pounds for the fourth, fifth and sixth classes;. that for a movement of a carload of freight from a station on one of ³⁵⁹ the defendants’ lines to a station on the line of one of the other defendants within Baltimore City, or Baltimore County adjacent thereto, the charges were based on the sum of the two cláss rates, and that therefore if a shipper desired a car of first-class freight moved from Camden Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to Bolton Station, on the Northern Central Railway, he would have to pay to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company six cents per hundred pounds to move the car from Camden Station to Bay View, where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad connects with the Northern Central Railway, and would have to pay to the Northern Central Railway Company six cents per hundred pounds to move said car from Bay Yeiw to Bolton Station; that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company, and the Union Railroad Company had by agreement established a joint rate, effective December 15th, 1910, whereby a shipper could have a car loaded with freight moved from a station on one of said railroads to a station on another of said railroads, within Baltimore City, or Baltimore County adjacent thereto, at the following rates: Pirst-class freight for eleven cents, second-class for ten cents, third-class for eight cents, fourth-class for seven cents, fifth-class for six cents, and sixth-class for five cents per hundred pounds; that said rates subjected the members of the associations to the payment of sums ranging from six dollars to fifty dollars per car for such switching movements; that said rates were unjust, unreasonable and discriminatory and in violation of said Act of 1910, “and that other cities, active competitors of Baltimore, enjoy switching charges averaging substantially three dollars per car.” The petition further alleged that said excessive charges were due in part to a failure of the defendants to construct and maintain switch connections within the city at points where the same could be properly made, and then prayed the Commission to pass an order requiring the defendants to define the Baltimore City switching limits; to construct and ³⁶⁰ maintain additional switch connections for the exchange of freight, an interchange car-float service between Canton and Locust‘Point, and establish “flat switching charges for local or joint switch movements, not exceeding the following: live miles .and under, three dollars and fifty cents per car; ten miles and over five, four dollars per car; fifteen miles and over ten, five dollars per car; over fifteen miles, six dollars per car.” The answer of the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Union Railroad Company of Baltimore denied'that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was engaged in the transportation of property and passengers between points in the State of Maryland, and that the Union Railroad Company was engaged in such transportation except in so far as other railroad companies use its road and facilities for that purpose. It admits that the Northern Central Railway Company and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company charged and collected the rates referred to in the petition of the complainants, but denies that said rates were unreasonable, unjust or unduly discriminatory, and that other cities, active competitors of Baltimore, enjoy switching charges of three dollars per car.

It denies the further allegations of the petition, and that said rates were in violation of the Public Service Commission Act of 1910. The answer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Baltimore Belt Railroad Company was practically to the same effect, except that they denied that the rates for the transportation of a carload of freight between points on their lines within the City of Baltimore, or Baltimore County adjacent thereto, and points on the lines of the other,defendants within the City of Baltimore, or Baltimore County adjacent thereto, were based on the sum of the local rates of said defendants and the other defendants, and that the rates from Camden Station to Bolton Station, on different classes of ³⁶¹ freight, were twelve, eleven, eleven, nine, nine and nine cents per hundred pounds, as stated in the complainants’ petition. After a hearing the Public Service Commission of Maryland passed, on the 31st day of May, 1912, the following order: “Ordered, 1. That the defendants, the Baltimore Belt Railroad Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company, the Western' Maryland Railway Company, and the Union Railroad Company, be and they severally are hereby notified and required to cease and desist, on or before the 1st day of August, 1912, from charging, exacting, demanding and receiving the rates and charges heretofore charged, exacted, demanded and received for the transportation of intrastate commerce of carloads of property from and to their and each of their several spurs, tracks, junctions, yards and terminals situate and located within the boundaries in the second paragraph of this order designated and described. “2.

It is further ordered, that the said defendants be, and they severally are, hereby notified and required to establish apd put in force on or before the 1st day of August, 1912, and maintain during the period of five years thereafter and until changed by further order of the Commission a 'Switching District’ for the City of Baltimore, to include all the territory within the following boundary lines, to wit: “Prom a line drawn from Notre Dame, a station on the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, to and including Rosedale, a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; thence southeasterly to and through Back River, a station on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad; thence south to and through Turner, a station on the Baltimore and Sparrow’s Point Branch of the Northern Central Railway; thence southwesterly to Curtis Bay, a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (including Wagner’s ³⁶² Point); thence west to and through Monumental, a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; thence northwesterly to and including Primrose, a station on the Catonsville Branch of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad; thence north to and including Arlington, a station on the Western Maryland Railway; thence northeasterly through and including Melvale, a station on the Northern Central Railway, to Notre Dame, the place of beginning. “3. It is further ordered, that said defendants be, and they severally are, hereby notified and required to establish and put in force on or before the 1st day of August, 1912, and apply thereafter during the period of not less than three years and until the further order of the Commission, to the transportation of intrastate commerce of property in carloads from and to the spurs, tracks, junctions, yards and terminals of said defendants within the territory in this order above mentioned and described the rates and charges, as follows, to wit: A rate and charge not in excess of one dollar per car for all services in connection with yard switching as in this order hereafter defined; rates and charges for all services in connection with Connecting Line Switching, not in excess of three dollars per car when in connection with a line movement, and not in excess of six dollars when in connection with a Local Movement, both movements as in this order hereafter defined; rates and charges for all services in connection with Intermediate Switching, not in excess of four dollars when in connection with a line movement and not in excess of seven dollars and fifty cents when in connection with a local movement, both movements as in this order hereafter defined; and a rate and charge not in excess of five dollars per car for all services in connection with Industrial Switching, as in this order hereafter defined. “4. It is further ordered, that for the purposes of this order: ³⁶³ “Yard Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a loaded car from any spur, siding or track in a yard of any carrier to another spur, siding or track in the same yard. “Connecting Line Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a loaded car from any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of one carrier to any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of another carrier, provided, that said movement shall not require the use of the instrumentalities and facilities of more than two carriers. “Line Movement Connecting Line Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be when a car has received or will receive further transportation beyond the Baltimore Switching District as hereinbefore described and defined. “Local Movement Connecting Line Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a car locally between points within the Baltimore Switching District as hereinbefore described and defined. “Intermediate Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a loaded ear from any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of one carrier, thence to and over the lines of another carrier, and thence to a spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of a third carrier. “Line Movement Intermediate Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be when a car has received or will receive further transportation beyond the Baltimore Switching District as hereinbefore described and defined. “Local Movement Intermediate Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a car locally between points within the Baltimore Switching District as hereinbefore described and defined. “Industrial Switching is hereby defined to be and shall be the movement of a loaded ear from any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of a carrier to any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of the same carrier. ³⁶⁴ “5. It is further ordered, that for the purposes hereof, the interpretation and construction of thte word ‘carrier’ as in the preceding paragraph mentioned shall be taken and applied to the Baltimore Belt Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as constituting one carrier, and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, the Union Railroad and the Northern Central Railway as constituting one carrier. “6.

It is further ordered, that this order shall not be construed to change or affect the existing rates or charges now applying to shipments of intrastate freight via the Western Maryland Railway or delivery of such freight at or to the spurs, tracks, junctions, yards or terminals of the Union Railroad. “7. It is further ordered, that the several defendants be and they hereby are required to perform at all times the services in this order mentioned and described witb adequate facilities and by. and over tbe most expeditious available routes.” On the 27th day of July, 1912, the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company and the Union Railroad Company of Baltimore filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit- Court No. 2 of Baltimore City against the Public Service Commission of Maryland praying that the order passed by said Commission he declared unreasonable, unlawful and null and void, and be vacated and set aside, and that said Commission he enjoined from enforcing or putting said order into effect, and on the same day a similar bill was filed in said Court by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Baltimore Belt Railroad Company. The Court below held that the order of the Public Service Commission was unlawful and unconstitutional in .so far as it required the railroad companies mentioned to perform the services designated and defined in said order as “Connecting Line Switching” and “Intermediate Switching;” that, so far as the Court was then advised, said order was lawful and ³⁶⁵ valid to the extent that it required the said railroad companies to perform, at the rates therein fixed, the services designated and defined therein as “Yard Switching” and “Industrial Switching,” and, accordingly, on the 23rd day of April, 1913, passed a decree dissolving the preliminary injunction as to that part of the order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland that required the railroad companies to perform the services designated and defined in said order as “Yard Switching” and “Industrial Switching” without prejudice to said railroad companies, and making-perpetual the injunction as to that part of the order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland requiring the several railroad companies to perform the services designated “Connecting Line Switching” and “Intermediate Switching.” The appeals in this case are by the Public Service Commission of Maryland from that part of the decree enjoining the enforcement of its order in reference to “Connecting Line Switching” and “Intermediate Switching,” and by the Northern Central Railway Company, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company and the Union Railroad Company from that part of the decree dissolving the preliminary injunction in so far as it refers to the enforcement of the Commission’s order in regard to “Yard Switching” and “Industrial Switching.” It appears from the evidence that the spurs, tracks, junctions, yards and terminals referred to in the order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland constitute what, the companies describe as the terminals and terminal facilities of the several railroad companies referred to in said order within Baltimore City, and Baltimore County adjacent thereto. The Union Railroad is a toll road, and all the terminals, tracks, spurs, yards and stations connected with its main tracks are owned and controlled by the Northern Central Railway Company and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company.

These three companies will be referred to hereafter as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The Baltimore Belt Railroad extends from Hamburg ³⁶⁶ Street, in Baltimore City, to Bay View, in Baltimore County, and is leased and operated t>y the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company own very extensive terminals and terminal facilities within the district referred to in the order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland. These terminals and terminal facilities consist of freight yards, depots, warehouses, elevators, piers, stockyards, industrial sidings, etc., and were constructed and are maintained by said companies at great cost and expense to them.

The terminals of the Western Maryland Railway Company are very much less extensive. The only connection of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with the Pennsylvania Railroad is by the Baltimore Belt Railroad from Camden Station to Bay View Junction, which is about seven miles from Camden Station, where the Baltimore Belt Railroad connects with the ISTorthem Central Railway. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad does not connect with the Western Maryland Railway, hut the latter road connects with the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington-Railroad at Fulton Junction. Prior to 1910 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Western Maryland Railway Company charged local class rates for the movement of freight from the terminals of one of said railroads to its connection with another within the limits referred to in the order of the Public Service Commission.

The class rates of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company were six -cents per hundred pounds for first class freight, five cents for second and third classes, and four cents for fourth, fifth and sixth classes of freight. The class rates of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were six cents per hundred pounds for the first, second and third classes of freight, and five cents for fourth, fifth and sixth classes. The class rates of the Western Maryland Railway Company, to junctions not more than five miles distant, were six cents per hundred pounds for first and second classes of freight; five cents for third and fourth, and four cents for fifth and sixth classes^ ³⁶⁷ The fourth, fifth and sixth classes are the classes of freight usually shipped in carload lots, and the charge at these local class rates for moving a car of fifth class freight, weighing twenty tons, from a terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio Raiiioad to the point of its connection with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and from that point to .a terminal of the latter road, was thirty-six dollars, the sum of the local rates. In 1910 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company established, effective December 15th, 1910, for such movements of freight the following joint class rates; for first class freight, eleven cents per hundred pounds; for second class, ten cents; for third class, eight cents; for fourth class, seven cents; for fifth class, six cents, and for sixth class, five cents.

The charge for the same movement of freight referred to above at these joint class rates is twenty-four dollars. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company also established joint class rates from points outside of the City of Baltimore, which were made by adding to the local rates to Baltimore the following differentials; five cents per hundred pounds for first and second classes of freight, and two cents for third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes. Applying these joint class rates to a car of fifth class freight, weighing twenty tons, shipped over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and consigned to a Per.nsyl2 vania Railroad terminal, the cost to the shipper of the delivery to the Pennsylvania Railroad terminal was eight dollars. In addition to the joint class rates to which we have referred, there were in force at the date of the order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland what are called joint commodity rates.

These commodity rates applied to special shipments, and in making them the two cents per hundred pounds, or forty cents per ton, fifth class differential was taken- as a basis, and graduated as follows: Where the line-haul rate was two dollars or more per ton, the differential would he forty cents; where the line-haul rate was one dollar and under two dollars, the differential was thirty cents, and ³⁶⁸ where the line-haul rate was under one dollar, the differential was twenty cents. These commodity rates applied to a car of freight weighing twenty tons shipped over the Pennsylvania Railroad for delivery at a terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company would result in charges for delivery at the terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company of eight dollars, six dollars and four dollars, according to the line-haul rate. In other words, if the line-haul rate of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was less than one dollar per ton, and the car weighing twenty tons was consigned to a terminal of 1he Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the cost to the shipper of delivery to the terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company would he four dollars. The several amounts we have named as the cost to the shipper under the joint rate agreements, of delivery at the terminal of a railroad other than the railroad on which the freight originated, are not, however, the amounts that the railroad at whose terminal the freight is delivered receives for its services and the use of its terminals.

The joint rate agreements provide for a division of the rates. Under these agreements the distance between the point- at which the freight originates and the point of delivery is divided into blocks. The railroad company at whose terminal the freight is delivered receives one' and onehhalf cents per hundred pounds for the use of its terminal, and its proportion of the balance according to the number of blocks, the freight is hauled over its road — a fraction of a block being counted as a block. This arrangement for a division of the rate applied to a shipment over the Pennsylvania Railroad from Buffalo, New York, to Camden Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at a joint rate of fifteen cents per hundred pounds, which would amount to ninety dollars for a car weighing thirty tons, is explained by one of the witnesses as follows: The car would he delivered to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company at Bay View, within the switching district referred to, and would be transferred from there to Camden ³⁶⁹ Station by the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company; the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company would receive one and one-half cents per hundred pounds for the use of its terminal and twenty per cent, of the balance, making in all twenty-five dollars and twenty cents.

Under the order of the Public Service Commission the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company would receive for the use of its terminal and for the same service only three dollars, and the Pennsylvania Bailroad Company would receive its rate from Buffalo to Baltimore, or its rate less the three dollars, if it absorbed the switching charge. The evidence in the case furnishes another illustration of a division of a joint rate. The Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company’s rate on brick from Frederick, Maryland, to Baltimore City is sixty-five cents per ton. The joint rate of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the Pennsylvania Bailroad Company for bricks shipped from Frederick over the Baltimore and Ohio Bail-road for delivery at a terminal of the Pennsylvania Bailroad Company is eighty-five cents per ton, or four dollars more on a car weighing twenty tons than the rate of the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad for delivery at its terminal.

The joint rate on a car of twenty tons would amount to seventeen dollars. Assuming that the distance from Frederick to Bay View Junction is eighty miles, and that the distance from Bay View Junction to Bolton Station, Baltimore, on the Northern Central Railway, is five miles, the Pennsylvania Bailroad Company (the Northern Central Railway Company) would receive one and one-half cents per ton, or six dollars for the use of its terminal, and one-third of the balance, namely, three dollars and sixty-six cents, making nine dollars and sixtv-six cents, and the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company would receive seven dollars and thirty-four cents. With the order of the Public Service Commission in force it is not probable that there would be an agreement for a joint rate for this shipment; the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad Company Would receive the sixty-five cents per ton for the line haul to Bay ³⁷⁰ View Junction, amounting to thirteen dollars, less the switching charge of three dollars, if it absorbed or paid it, and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company would get only three dollars for the use pf its terminal- and for the same service for which it would receive nine dollars and sixty-six cents under the joint rate arrangement. While the order of the Commission would result in a loss to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company of six dollars and sixty cents on this shipment, and a gain of two dollars and sixty-six cents for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the shipper would only save one dollar, if he was required to pay the switching charge, or four dollars if the switching charge was absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.

In the case of the Merchants and Manufacturers’ Association of Baltimore et al, v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company et als, 23 I. C. C. Rep. 474, the Interstate Commerce Commission held in respect to* the rates to* which we have referred that except where the joint through rates were in effect the class rates collected by said railroads for the interchange of interstate traffic in carloads in the City of Baltimore were unreasonable, and that a reasonable charge for “such service ought not exceed the flat Baltimore rate by more than the following: On first and second classes, five cents per hundred pounds; on third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes, and upon commodities not moving under class rates, two cents per hundred pounds.” The order of the Public Service Commission of Maryland, as we have seen, abolishes these joint rates in so far as they apply to intrastate traffic, and establishes in lieu thereof the per car switching rates therein provided. The evidence also* tends to show that about ninety per cent, of the freight to and from Baltimore City is shipped to and from points where the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and the Western Maryland Railway Company compete; that the ability of one of said railroads to compete with the other depends largely upon the location, character and extent of its terminals; that a railroad company, in order to secure freight from a point ³⁷¹ where it competes with other railroad companies and destined. to terminals on their lines, would absorb or pay the switching charges fixed by the Commission out of its line-haul charge, and would not be willing to enter into’ a joint rate agreement; that the order of the Commission not only impairs the value of the companies’ terminals as a means of securing freight, in that it enables any one of the railroad companies, by absorbing the switching charges, to compete with the others for the line-haul sendee1, but also deprives the companies of their value as a means of securing joint rate arrangements by which they receive a share of the line-haul charges for the use of their terminals; that each of said railroads constructed and maintains its terminals for the accommodation of its own business; that at times they are not more than sufficient for that purpose, and that the effect of the Commission’s order is to deprive them of the use and control of their terminal facilities. The contentions of the several railroad companies in this case are: (1) that the Public Service Commission of Maryland has no power under the Public Service Commission Law to require them to perform the services designated “Connecting Line Switching” and “Intermediate Switching,” because to require them to render such service would compel them to permit and allow other railroad companies, their competitors, “to use their tracks and terminal facilities;” (2) that to require them to1 perform such service, in accordance with the order of the Commission, would deprive them of their property without due proces of law within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and (3) that the rates fixed by the Commission for the services mentioned are unreasonable and confiscatory. On the other hand, the Public Service1 Commission insists, (1) that the order does not require one of said railroads to allow the others to use its terminals; (2) that the order is not unconstitutional, and (3) that the switching charges prescribed are not unjust and unreasonable. ³⁷² In respect to the first contention of the railroad companies, it must be conceded that at common law common carriers were not bound to give the use of their tracks and terminals to competing lines.

But that the Legislature may, subject to constitutional limitations, prescribe reasonable regulations for the conduct of common carriers, and impose upon railroad companies operating within the State duties in excess of their common law obligations, and may exercise that power through a commission duly constituted for that purpose, will not be disputed, and is distinctly affirmed by this Court in the cases of Gregg v. Laird, 121 Md. 1 , 87 Atl. Rep. 1111 , and Laird v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 121 Md. 193 , 88 Atl. Rep. 353 , and by the cases there cited, to which we need only add the case of Louisville, &c., R. R. Co. v. Stock Yards Co., 212 U. S. 132 . The first inquiry in this connection is, what is the nature of the service required by the order of the Commission? and that question being answered, it will remain to be determined whether the Act of 1910, Ch. 180, confers upon the Public Service Commission of this State the power to exact such service from the railroads involved in this controversy.

The order of the Commission requires the railroad companies to establish a switching district for the City of Baltimore within the boundaries therein mentioned, and to establish rates, not exceeding the amounts therein named, for connecting line switching and intermediate switching, which are declared to be “the movement of a loaded car from any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of one carrier to any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of another earner,” and “the movement of a loaded car from any spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of one carrier, thence to and over the lines of another carrier, and thence to a spur, track, junction, yard or terminal of a third carrier.” The movements described in the order include the movement by one carrier of a carload of freight from the point of its connection with another carrier to its own terminal, so that if a carload of freight was shipped from any point within the 'State over ³⁷³ the Pennsylvania Railroad and consigned to Camden Station, Baltimore, a terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio1 Railroad Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company would be required by the order of the Commission to' transfer said car from its junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad, at Bay View, to «Camden Station, or if the same car was shipped from any point within the State over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and consigned to Calvert Station, Baltimore, a terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the order of the Commission would require the latter railroad to haul the car from Bay View Junction to its terminal. Has the Commission the power to impose such a duty upon the railroad companies? The Act of 1910, section 15, provides “That every common carrier shall file with the Commission having jurisdiction, and shall print and keep open to public inspection, schedules showing the rates, fares and charges for the transportation of passengers and property within the State between each point upon its route and all other points' thereon; and between each point upon its route, and all points on each route leased, operated or controlled by it; and between each point on its route or upon any route leased, operated or controlled by it, and all points on the route of any other common carrier, whenever a through route and joint route shall have been established or ordered between any two such points. Section 18 declares, “That every common carrier is required to afford all reasonable, proper and equal facilities for the interchange of passengers, freight and property traffic between the lines owned, operated, controlled or leased by it and the lines of every other common carrier, and for the prompt transfer of passengers and for the prompt receipt and forwarding of freight and property to and from its said lines; and no common carrier shall in any manner discriminate in respect to rates, fares or charges, or in any respect, to any service, or in respect to any charges or facilities for any such transfer in receiving or forwarding between any two or more other common carriers or between passen ³⁷⁴ gers, freight or property destined to points upon the lines of any two of more other common carriers, or in any respect with reference to passengers, freight or property transferred or received from any two or more other common carriers.

This, section shall not he construed to require a common carrier to permit or allow any other common carrier to use its tracks or terminal facilities. .Every common carrier, as such, is required to receive from every other common car-rier, at a connecting point, freight cars of proper standard, and haul the same through to destination, if the destination be upon a line owned, opeated or controlled by such common carrier, or if the destination be upon a line of some other common carrier, to haul any car so delivered through to the connecting point upon the line owned, operated, controlled or leased by it, by way of route over which such car is billed, and there to deliver the same to the next connecting carrier. Nothing in this section shall he construed as in anywise limiting or modifying the duty of a common carrier to establish joint rates, fares and charges for the transportation of passengers, freight and property over the lines owned, operated, controlled and leased by it and the lines of other common earners, nor as in any manner limiting or modifying the power of the Commission to require the establishment of such joint rates, fares and charges. A railroad corporation and a street railroad corporation shall not be required to interchange cars except on such ternas and conditions as the Commission may direct.” The latter section provides that it shall not be construed to. require a common carrier to permit or allow any other common carrier to use its tracks or terminal facilities, and the precise contention of counsel for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is stated in their brief as follows: “While it may be safely admitted by the appellees that under the provisions of section 18 of the Public Service Commission Law, the appellees may be required by the Commission to accept cars of freight- at junction points on their lines (main roadway) within the State of Maryland, from other railroad ³⁷⁵ companies, and haul the same to destination and deliver the same on appellees’ terminals, if the destination is not reached by the other carriers’ lines; and the junction point is not near the appellees’ terminals; and the other carriers are not competitors with the appellees from the point where the shipment originated to the destitution;. and that the appellees with regard to that sendee would be subject to all the provisions of sections 13, 16, 18, and 23 of the Public Service Commission Law, as respect rates and otherwise; yet, since the order in this case requires the appellees to accept cars from other earners at junction points not only near, but right on and at the appellees’ terminals in Baltimore City— if the appellees should submit to the order of the Commission in this case .with respect to 'Connecting Line Switching’ and 'Intermediate Switching,’ they would be submitting to an order which deprives them of their property without due process of law and which requires them to allow their competitors to use their yards and tracks and other terminal facilities within and immediately without the City of Baltimore” In support of this contention the railroad companies rely upon the cases of Little Rock and M. R. Co. v. St. Louis, I. M. and S. Ry. Co., 59 Fed. Rep. 400; Oregon Short-Line and U. N. Ry.

Co. v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co., 61 Fed. Rep. 158; Central Stock Yards Co. v. L. and N. R. R. Co., 192 U. S. 568 ; and L. and N. R. R. Co. v. Central Stock Yards Co., 212 U. S. 132 . In the first of these cases the Court said: “The effect of granting the relief asked would be to put the plaintiff in a position where it could receive interstate freight at