["The Act to Regulate Commerce" was approved Feb. 4, 1887, and went into effect April 5, 1887. It was amended slightly in 1889, and 1908, and greatly in 1906 and again in 1910. Below are given some of the most important sections entire, other whole paragraphs, and a syllabus of the rest of the act. The dates of the acts in which the several features first occurred are in brackets preceding each significant statement, thus indicating the more important changes and the growth of the Act.]

§ 1. (As amended June 29, 1906, April 13, 1908, and June 18, 1910.) [1887] That the provisions of this Act shall apply to any [1906] corporation or any person or persons engaged in the transportation of oil or other commodity, except water and except natural or artificial gas, by means of pipe lines, or partly by pipe lines and partly by railroad, or partly by pipe lines and partly by water, and [1910] to telegraph, telephone, and cable companies (whether wire or wireless) engaged in sending messages from one State, Territory, or District of the United States or to any foreign country, who shall be considered and held to be common carriers within the meaning and purpose of this Act, and to any [1887] common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad (or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment), from one State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, or [1906] from one place in a Territory to another place in the same Territory, [1887] or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and also to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from any place in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transshipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or an adjacent foreign country: Provided, however, That the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of property wholly within one State and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid, [1910] nor shall they apply to the transmission of messages by telephone, telegraph, or cable wholly within one State and not transmitted to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid.

[1906] The term "common carrier" as used in this Act shall include express companies and sleeping-car companies. [1887] The term "railroad" as used in this Act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease, [1906] and shall also include all switches, spurs, tracks, and terminal facilities of every kind used or necessary in the transportation of the persons or property designated herein, and also all freight depots, yards, and grounds used or necessary in the transportation or delivery of any of said property; and the term "transportation" shall include [1906] cars and other vehicles and [1887] all instrumentalities [1906] and facilities [1887] of shipment or carriage, [1906] irrespective of ownership or of any contract, express or implied, for the use thereof and all services in connection with the receipt, delivery, elevation, and transfer in transit, ventilation, refrigeration or icing, storage, and handling of property transported; and it shall be the duty of every carrier subject to the provisions of this

Act to provide and furnish such transportation upon reasonable request therefor, and to establish through routes and just and reasonable rates applicable thereto; [1910] and to provide reasonable facilities for operating such through routes and to make reasonable rules and regulations with respect to the exchange, interchange, and return of cars used therein, and for the operation of such through routes, and providing for reasonable compensation to those entitled thereto. [1887] All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property, [1910] and for the transmission of messages by telegraph, telephone, or cable, [1887] as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, shall be just and reasonable; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service [1906] or any part thereof [1887] is prohibited and declared to be unlawful: [1910] Provided, That messages by telegraph, telephone, or cable, subject to the provisions of this Act, may be classified into day, night, repeated, unrepeated, letter, commercial, press, Government, and such other classes as are just and reasonable, and different rates may be charged for the different classes of messages: And Provided further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent telephone, telegraph, and cable companies from entering into contracts with common carriers for the exchange of services.

[1910. Classification must be just and reasonable, so also must the regulations and practices such as marking, packing, delivery, etc.]

[1887. Free passes and free transportation prohibited. 1906. Details of excepted classes, as employees, charitable workers, etc.]

[1906. The Commodities Clause.] From and after May first, nineteen hundred and eight, it shall be unlawful for any railroad company to transport from any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, to any other State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or to any foreign country, any article or commodity, other than timber and the manufactured products thereof, manufactured, mined, or produced by it, or under its authority, or which it may own in whole or in part, or in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect, except such articles or commodities as may be necessary and intended for its use in the conduct of its business as a common carrier.

[1906. Switch Connections.] Any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act, upon application of any lateral, branch line of railroad, or of any shipper tendering interstate traffic for transportation, shall construct, maintain, and operate upon reasonable terms a switch connection . . . where such connection is reasonably practicable and can be put in with safety and will furnish sufficient business to justify the construction and maintenance of the same; and shall furnish cars for the movement of such traffic to the best of its ability without discrimination in favor of or against any such shipper . . . [1906 Switch connections may be ordered by the Commission.]

§ 2. [1887. Unjust discrimination defined and forbidden.] That if any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for any service rendered, or to be rendered, in the transportation of passengers or property, subject to the provisions of this Act, than it charges, demands, collects, or receives from any other person or persons for doing for him or them a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, such common carrier shall be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared to be unlawful.