Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/96

 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. act was prohibited and made unlawful. And it was made un- lawful for a common carrier to deviate from the published schedule of rates, fares and charges. 24 Stat, � p. 381, eh. 104, February 4, 1887. By the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Star. 857, �), the shipper was brought within certain criminal provisions of the law, and one who should knowingly and willfully, by false billing, false classifying, false weighing, false representation of the contents of the package, or false report of weight, or by any other device or means, with or without the consent or con- nivance of the carrier, obtain or dispose of property at less than the regular rate established and in force, should be deemed guilty of fraud. It will be noticed that in these statutes the term device is associated with other words indicative of its meaning, and in the act of March 2, 1889, the shipper, for falsely acting as to weighing, billing, classifying or obtaining the transportation of property at less than the regular rate, or by any other de- vice, was deemed guilty of fraud. In this act the term device, as one of the means of consummating a fraud, shows the sense in which the term is used by Congre. It was only fraudulent conduct in obtaining transportation at less rates than others, which was denounced by the act, and the imposition aimed at was principally such as might be practiced by the shippers upon the carriers in order to procure the preference. When we come to the Elkins Act we find the following pro- visions (32 Stat. 847): "The wilfful failure upon the part of any carrier subject to said acts to file and publistr the tariffs or rates and charges as required by said acts or strictly to observe such tariffs until changed according to law, shall be a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof the corporation offending shall be subject to a fine not less than one thousand dollars nor more than twenty thousand dollars for each offense; and it shall be unlaw- ful for any person, persons or corporation to offer, grant or give or to solicit, accept or receive any rebate, concession or

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