1. The Act of July 28, 1916, authorized the Interstate Commerce
Commission to determine on a space basis the compensation to be
paid railroads for transportation of mails in railway post office
cars and for the service connected therewith, and to allow land
grant roads only 80% of this compensation although part of the
space in such cars by which such compensation is gauged is not
occupied for mail matter, but is used for the distribution of mail
on the trains. P.
271 U. S.
606.
2. The obligation of land grant railroads, as espressed in
granting acts passed in 1852 and 1853, to transport the mails at
all times "under the direction of the Post Office Department at
such price as Congress may direct," looked to the future and
includes the furnishing of space in railway post office cars for
distribution purposes as required in this case by the Department
pursuant to the Act of July 28, 1916. P.
271 U. S.
607.
59 Ct.Cls. 524, 60
id. 183, affirmed.
Appeal from a judgment of the Court of Claims dismissing on
demurrer a petition of the railroad seeking
Page 271 U. S. 604
additional compensation on account of space in railway post
office cars used by post office employees in distributing
mails.
MR. JUSTICE SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.
Appellant operates, and since June, 1917, has operated, a system
of railroads which includes a number of land grant lines in
Missouri and other states. These lines received land grants in aid
of their construction, and are bound to carry the United States
mails, under the provisions of land grant acts, passed in 1852 and
1853,§ 6, c. 45, 10 Stat. 8, 10; § 6, c. 59, 10 Stat. 155, 156,
both of which provide that the United States mails shall be
transported on the railroads receiving the grants at all times
"under the direction of the Post Office Department at such price as
Congress may by law direct."
By the Act of July 28, 1916, c. 261, § 5, 39 Stat. 412, 425-431,
the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed
"to fix and determine from time to time the fair and reasonable
rates and compensation for the transportation of . . . mail matter
by railway common carriers and the service connected therewith,
prescribing the method or methods by weight, or space, or both, or
otherwise, for ascertaining such rate or compensation. . . ."
In respect of land grant lines, the act provides:
"The Interstate Commerce Commission shall allow to railroad
companies whose railroads were constructed in
Page 271 U. S. 605
whole or in part by a land grant made by Congress on condition
that the mails should be transported over their roads at such price
as Congress should by law direct only eighty percentum of the
compensation paid other railroads for transporting the mails and
all service by the railroads in connection therewith."
The act confers upon the Postmaster General the power to state
railroad mail routes and authorizes mail service thereon of four
classes, the first two of which are: (1) full railway post office
car service; (2) apartment railway post office car service. For the
first class, service is to be "by cars forty feet or more in
length, constructed, fitted up, and maintained for the distribution
of mails on trains." For the second class, the service is the same
"by apartments less than forty feet in length," etc. The service is
to include the carriage of mail matter, equipment, and supplies for
the mail service and the employees of the Postal Service or Post
Office Department, as the Postmaster General shall direct to be
carried. All cars and parts of cars used for the service are to be
of such construction, style, length, and character, and furnished
in such manner, as the Postmaster General shall require, and are to
be constructed, fitted up, maintained, heated, lighted, and cleaned
by and at the expense of the railroad companies. The railroad
companies are required to furnish all necessary facilities for
caring for and handling the mails while in their custody. The act
further provides that all railway common carriers are required to
transport such mail matter as may be offered for transportation,
etc., and shall be entitled to receive fair and reasonable
compensation "for such transportation and for the service connected
therewith."
The Interstate Commerce Commission, after a hearing, made an
exhaustive report and determined that mail should be carried upon
the basis of space, instead of weight. Upon that basis, the
Commission fixed rates for
Page 271 U. S. 606
all services required to be performed by the act, and declared
that the land grant railroads were entitled to 80 percent thereof
under the law. It was urged before the Commission on behalf of
these railroads that this provision of the law "should not apply to
the distributing space in R.P.O. and apartment cars, because the
service of carrying distributing facilities cannot properly be
construed as transportation of the mails as defined in the law."
But the Commission held otherwise. Railway Mail Pay, 56 I.C.C. 1,
77. Thereupon appellant filed its petition in the court below,
alleging the facts and praying judgment against the United States
for $189,880.54 as compensation for the use of the distributing
space upon the same ground as that urged before the Commission. The
amount of the demand was arrived at by separating the car space
said to be used for mail distributing purposes from the space
devoted to storage purposes, and adding 20 percent to that portion
of the 80 percent allowance which was claimed to be assignable to
the distributing space. The Court of Claims sustained a demurrer to
the petition and entered judgment of dismissal. 59 Ct.Cls. 524; 60
Ct.Cls. 183.
That the Commission is authorized by the Act of 1916 to fix
rates for the transportation of the mails, that the rates fixed by
the Commission are reasonable, and that Congress has plenary power
to determine the price at which the land grant roads shall
transport the mail are propositions which are not here in dispute.
The contention is that this power does not enable Congress to fix
the pay of the land grant roads for furnishing distributing space
and facilities, but that these items, under the requirement of the
land grant acts, are separable from and in addition to
transportation, and should be paid for at the same rates accorded
other railroads.
Unmistakably, the Act of 1916 authorized the Commission to do
precisely what it did -- namely, to determine the
Page 271 U. S. 607
fair and reasonable rates and compensation to be paid, upon a
space basis, for the transportation of mail matter "and the service
connected therewith," and thereupon to allow the land grant roads
80 percent of those rates and compensation for like transportation
"and all service . . . in connection therewith." It would do
manifest violence to these plain words to say that Congress
intended in the one case that the Commission should fix the
compensation to be paid railroads generally for transportation,
including service connected therewith, but did not intend in the
other case, although it used almost the same words, that 80 percent
of that compensation, and no more, should be allowed the land grant
roads for like transportation and service.
But it is urged that thus to construe the Act of 1916 is to
enlarge the authority of Congress under the land grant acts, so as
to permit that body to require the land grant roads, without
compensation, to perform service in addition to that embraced
within the word "transportation." It is said that railway postal
cars originated after the passage of the land grant acts. But it
does not follow that such cars are not fairly within the meaning of
those acts as essentially incident to transportation. The provision
reaches into the future, and, while its meaning does not change,
its application may well embrace new conditions and new
instrumentalities which come within the scope of the terms
employed. This is in accordance with the universal law of language.
In a sense, words do not change their meaning, but the application
of words grows and expands with the growth and expansion of
society.
Compare South Carolina v. United States,
199 U. S. 437,
199 U. S.
448-449.
To transport any article involves, as a necessary incident,
furnishing facilities for its transportation, and the character and
extent of these facilities will depend upon the nature of the thing
transported. Facilities appropriately
Page 271 U. S. 608
employed in the transportation of lumber, for example, would be
wholly inappropriate in the transportation of livestock. The mail
includes a variety of things gathered from and carried to
innumerable places. Letters and parcels must be received, more or
less piecemeal, and then assorted and put in convenient form for
delivery at the places to which they are addressed, and, if the
mails are to go forward with dispatch, this involves assortment and
preparation for delivery in transit, and this, in turn, necessarily
requires that facilities to that end must be provided.
Nor can we ignore the provision of the land grant acts that the
mails are to be transported "under the direction of the Post Office
Department." The authority is a continuing one, and not to be
limited to such methods of direction as were customary at the dates
of the acts. The mail was to be transported "at all times" under
this direction. The power of the Post Office Department to direct
the transportation is of the same quality as the power of Congress
to fix the price, and includes not only the authority to say when
the transportation shall take place and between what points, but to
impose such conditions as are necessarily incident to the
transportation, having regard to the peculiar nature of the things
to be transported. We fully agree with the court below that the
land grant acts are not to be so narrowly construed as to render
their operation impracticable.
"When they declare that the mails shall be transported under the
direction of the Post Office Department, we think they imply more
than the mere placing of the mails in bulk in a car to be carried
between given termini. The bulk changes by additions to it and
subtractions from it. The making of these additions and
subtractions as the different stations are reached involves space
additional to that occupied by the bulk itself. What is to be
transported is not mere weight, bulk or freight, but the 'mails,'
and the act must be construed to give effect to its purpose. "
Page 271 U. S. 609
We fairly may assume, in the absence of any evidence to the
contrary, that, in fixing the allowance to be paid to the land
grant roads at 80 percent of the fair and reasonable compensation
to be paid railroads generally, Congress has given due weight to
all the circumstances -- not only to the kind and character of the
service, but to the fact that the companies are required to furnish
all facilities incidental thereto. In any event, it was for
Congress to say what reduction should be made from the amount of
full compensation in consideration of the land grants, and its
action in that respect is not open to judicial review.
Judgment affirmed.