Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/100

 74 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Opinion of the CouP. 209 U.8. in the district throh which th tra may hav beam Having in view the offense charged in ths case, we think it is clearly within the terms of the act re&king it penal to procure the actual transportation, by any of the means de- nounced in the act, of goods at a less rate than that named in the tariffs. It is the purpose of the act to punish those who give or receive transportation, in the sense of actual carriage, at a concession from the pu.blished rates. Wherever such transportation is received, there the offense is to be deemed to have been committed. Why may this not be so? In this feature of the statute, the transportation being of the eseence of the offense, when it takes place, whether in one district or another, whether at the beginning, at the end, or in the mid- dle of the journey, it is equally and at all times committed. Congress also embraced in �of the Elkins Act offenses not depending upon actual transportation through districts; and as to the trial of such, it also made provisions in the venue section. For the penal section is not only aimed at offenses whereby property is transported in interstate commerce at leas than published rates, but in terms covers the offering, granting, giving, soliciting, accepting or receiving of rebates, conces- sions or discriminations, "whereby any other advantage is given or discdminatinn is practiced" in respect of interstate transportation. Congress doubtless had in mind that some of these offenses might be complete i.n a single district; some might be begun in one and completed in another; and those wherein transport tion--actual carriage--was made an essential element might continue through several districts, and hence undertook to provide places for trial of any offense which might be com- mitted against the provisions of the act. It is at least certain that these sections, construed together, make an offense of obtaining transportation at a concession from the published rate, which shall be triable in any district through which it

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