Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/145

 209 U.S.. Opinion of the Court. proper sense is the public a general manager. As said in lat. Con. Corn. v. A. Mid. R. R. Co., 168 U.S. 144, 172, quoting from the opinion of Circuit Judge Jackson, afterwards Mr. Jus- tice Jackson of this court, in lat. Co, n. Corn. v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 43 Fed. Rep. 37, 50: "Subject to the two leading prohibitions that their charges shall not be 'unjust or unreasonable, and that they shall not unjustly disoriminate so as to give undue preference or ad- vantage to peruohs or traffic similarly circum.tanced, the act to regulate commerce leave common carriers, as they were at the common law, free to make special rates looking to the in- cree of their business, to cb-fy their traffic, to adjust and apportion the. it rates so as to meet the neceties of commerce and of their own situation and relation to it, and generally to roge their important interest upon the same principles which are regarded as sound and adopted in other trade and It follows that railroad companies may contract with ship- pers for a single transportation or for successive trausportao tions, subject though it may he to a chn of rates in the manner provided in the Interstate Commerce Act--Armo Packing Co. v. The Uated States, ante, p. 56, and also that in fixing their own rates they may take into account competi- tion with other carriers, provided only that the competition is genuine and not a pretense. lat. Corn. Corn. v. B. & O. R. U.S. 197; lat. Corn. Corn. v. Ala. Mid. RI. Co., supra; L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Behlmer, 175 U.S. 648; East Tenn. &c. RI. Co. v. Int. Corn. Corn., 181 U.S. 1; Int. 'Corn. Corn. v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 190 U.S. 273. It must also be remembered that there is no presumption of wrong arising from a change of rate by a carrier. The pre- sumption of honest intent and right conduct attends the ac- tion of carriers as well as it does the action of other corpora- tionh or individuals in their transactions in life. Undoubtedly when rates are changed the carrier making the change must,

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