Page:Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. Porter (168 Ark. 22).pdf/6

ARK.] depends upon whether the Cummins Amendment to the Carmack Act has covered the field of regulating commerce with foreign nonadjacent countries. The liability paragraph of the Carmack Act reads as follows:

"That any common carrier receiving property for transportation from a point in one State to a point in another State shall issue a receipt or bill of lading therefor, and shall be liable to holder thereof for loss, damage," etc. The Cummins Amendment inserted therein the following words: "or from any point in the United States to a point in an adjacent foreign country." Did the insertion of these words evince an intention on the part of Congress to cover the entire subject of regulating foreign commerce? We think not. The plain language of the amendatory act reflects that Congress was dealing only with commerce with adjacent foreign countries. There is not an indication in the amendatory act that Congress intended to regulate commerce with non-adjacent foreign countries. We think it inconceivable that Congress would manifest its intention to enter the field of regulating commerce with non-adjacent countries by indirection. We are unable to gather an intention on the part of Congress to regulate commerce with non-adjacent foreign countries because it enacted regulatory measures relating specifically to commerce between adjacent countries. Such an inference would be far-fetched and unreasonable. The subject of commerce with adjacent foreign countries and with non-adjacent foreign countries are separate and distinct, so it cannot be inferred that Congress, in dealing with one subject, intended to embrace both.

Since Federal laws have not been passed covering the field of regulation of loss in shipments of this character, the shipment is governed by § 843 of Crawford & Moses' Digest. Our attention has been called to paragraph 4 of § 25 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by the Transportation Act of 1920 (Fed. Stat. Ann. 1920 Supp. p. 124), in support of the contention that § 843 of Crawford & Moses' Digest has been superseded by the Federal