Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/447

 TEXAS EXPRESS CO. V. TEXAS & PACIFIC BY. 00. ' 435 �dred pounds per hundred miles for transportation of its express matter, and relies upon articles 4256 and 4257 of the Texas Eevised Statutes to support this contention. This proposi- tion of the plaintiff, considered in connection with the plain» tiff's undisputed daim to have express matter hauled on pas- senger and other fast trains, and in the manner customary in hauling suchmatter, was denounced by the vice -president of the Texas & Pacific Eailway Company, in his oral argu- ment, as a proposition "too impudent" and "too bald" to be entertained by any court, or to permit the offering upon it of any argument to any court. His counsel, however, did argue this proposition elaborately, candidly, and with much force. �The provisions of the statutes upon which the plaintiff relies are the f oUowing : �Art. 4256. "No railroad company shall demand or receive for transporting a passenger over its line of road exceeding five cents for each mile or fraction of a mile it may transport Buch passenger. « • » �Art. 4257. "Eailroad coropanies may charge and receive not exceeding the rate of 50 cents per hundred pounds per hundred miles for the transportation of freight over their roads, but the charges for transportation on each claes or kind of freight shall be uniform, and no unjust discrimina- tions in the rates or charges for the transportation of any freights shall be made against any person or place, on any railroad in this state: * * * provided, that when the distance from the place of shipment to the point of destina- tion of any freights is 50 miles or less, a charge not exceeding 30 cents per hundred pounds may be made for the transporta- tion thereof," �The correct construction of these provisions, and how far they effect the issue between these parties, is not free from dif- ficulty., There is no literal exception in the statutes taking express matter ont of its general terms used to embrace ail commodities hauled by railroads. The only exception made in the statutes in direct and explicit terms is in reference to the mails of the United States, which are to be carried on such ��� �