INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMIS SION. A commission of five persons ap pointed by the president under the act of February 4, 1887, to carry out the purpose of the act. It sits usually in Washington, but can hold sittings at such other places as it may choose. By act of June 29, 1906, it was increased to seven members with terms of seven years. "It is not a court ; it is a special tribunal continually engaged in an administrative and semi-judicial capacity in investigating railroad rates and practices" ; Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. v. S. P. Co., 6 I. C. C. Rep. 508. Except the rulings of the Su preme Court and the directions of the dis trict court in the particular case, it does not feel itself bound to follow all the decisions of the federal courts ; 1 Drinker, Interst. Corn. Act, § 262.
The functions of the Commission are to hear complaints as to violations of the In terstate Commerce Act and also to investi gate of its own motion any violations which may come to its notice. It may not of it self institute criminal proceedings, but may and frequently does recommend such to the attorney general's department.
Since 1906, it has power not merely to find that a violation of the act has been caused, and award damages to the injured party, but to prescribe a reasonable rate or regula tion for that' found to be improper. It may also prescribe joint through routes between connecting carriers, with through rates ap plicable thereto.
In actions before the Commission to re cover damages for violations of the act, the statute of limitations is two years from the accrual of the cause of action. This period begins to run when the freight was payable and not when it was actually paid ; Arkansas Fertilizer Co. v. U. S., 193 Fed. 667.
A letter to the Commission, setting out the facts and praying relief, is, however, suf ficient to toll the running of the statute; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Dickerson, 191 Fed. 705, 112 C. C. A. The Commission leas exclusive jurisdiction to question the reasonableness or legality of a tariff rate or regulation, filed in the manner prescribed by section 6 of the act. Until the Commission has declared such a rate illegal, no court, state or federal, has power to dis pute its validity. Nor can/the parties them selves contract for a different rate.
Practice before the Commission is informal compared with that in the courts. The Com mission has no power to enforce its own or ders, but the provision in the act by which the disobedience of a lawful order of the Commission subjects the offender to a fine of $5,000 for each day's continuance, makes such orders effective. This provision does
not apply td orders for the payment of dam ages, as to which, under its constitutional right, the carrier may insist on a jury trial in the district court.
The usual method of contesting the va lidity of the Commission is by application for an injunction to the proper district court, with appeal to the Supreme Court in the manner provided by the act.
The Constitution of the United States, Art. I, Sec. 8, gives to Congress the power "to regulate com merce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes." The Interstate Commerce Act was passed on February 4, and took effect- on April 5, 1887. It was amended March 2. 1889, February 10, 1891, and February 8, 1895 ; sup plementary acts were passed February' 11, 1893, March 2, 1893, Feb. 19, 1903, June 29, 1906, Aprii 13, 1908, June 18, 1910, and October 22, 1913.
It applies to all carriers engaged in the transpor tation of oil or other commodity, except water and natural or artificial gas, by means of pipe lines, or partly by pipe lines and partly by railroad, or partiy by pipe lines and partly by water, and to tel egraph, telephone and cable companies (whether wire or wireless) engaged in sending messages from one state, territory, or district of the United States to any other state, territory, or district, or to any foreign country, and to any carrier engaged in the transportation of passengers and property wholly by railroad (or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous car riage or shipment), from one state or territory or the District of Columbia, or from one place in a territory to another place in the same territory, or from any place in the United States to an foreign country or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and also to the transporta tion in like manner of property shipped from any place in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transhipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United - States or an adjacent foreign country.