Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Department of Public Works

The public service commission, now the board of public works, on its own petition, seeks to establish just and proper rates on logs within the state of Washington. The rates were originally established by the carriers themselves, and were discriminating and preferential and lacking in uniformity. On January 25, 1918, by order No. 28, the director general increased the freight rates twenty-five per cent throughout the United States. In the transportation act of February 28, 1920 (41 Stat. 456), providing for the termination of Federal control, Congress recognized the necessity for higher…