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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, by

THE LAWYERS CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING CO.

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.

E. R. ANDREWS, Printer, Rochester, N. Y.

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PREFACE.

N completing the first volume of the INTERSTATE COMMERCE REPORTS We feel justified in saying that the intention expressed in our preliminary announcement has been fulfilled, namely: that these Reports should "include not only the formal decisions of the Commission, but also such of its proceedings as may be of general interest and convey information as to the method of procedure before it;" and that "full reports will also be given of all cases in the courts of the country at large, relating to the subject of interstate commerce and arising under the Interstate Commerce Act, or involving questions connected with its application and operation, and which are deemed of value as precedents to lighten the burden of the Commission, or to inform shippers, carriers or counsel."

This plan of the Reports seems to have met with general approval, and the value and convenience of having everything connected with the subject of interstate commerce collected in a single publication have been recognized.

Of course the most prominent feature of the volume is its full presentation of the important work accomplished by the Interstate Commerce Commission during the first year of its existence. It will be seen that the labor which has been imposed upon the Commission has been very great, and that the questions which it has been called upon to decide have been intricate and difficult and of vital importance, not only to the parties immediately interested but to the commercial interests of the whole country.

The necessity for such legislation as is embodied in the Interstate Commerce Act seems to be fully shown by this record of the first year of its enactment; and the difficulties which it was feared by many would attend the application and enforcement of its provisions have been reduced to a minimum, under the clear and practical construction placed thereon by the Commission.

This central portion of the work has been supplemented by full reports of the decisions of the Federal and State Courts upon the subject of interstate commerce, rendered during the year covered by this volume; and the effort has been made (by including the full text of the Interstate Commerce Act and the material portions of the English Statutes upon which our Act is largely based, together with a note on the American and English decisions upon the questions connected with this legislation) to furnish a comprehensive and convenient hand-book upon the subjects of domestic commerce and transportation, in their relations to the Nation and the State, to the carrier and the shipper, to the producer and the consumer. For the completeness and accuracy of this history of the first year of the Interstate Commerce Act, much is due to the courtesy and co-operation of the members of the Commission, of their Secretary and his assistants, and of the counsel who have appeared before the Commission.

May, 1888.

THE L. C. P. Co.

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