INTERSTATE COMMERCE

connotes the free and untrammelled conduct of trade between persons throughout United States, irrespective of State lines. The term has its chief significance in its’ opposite relation to Intrastate Commerce, which expre es trade transactions carried on within the boundari of a State. Interstate commerce is under Federal control; intrastate commerce is regulated by each State. The phrase has come to mean largely the transportation of commodities over the great systems of railroads that pierce the country urimpeded by State boundaries. In other words, the railroads, as a national means of transit, came to dominate interstate commerce. Interstate railroad traffic and interstate commerce accordingly pa current as interchangeable terms, though the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commi ion (the Federal body that controls the railroads) als» embraces the supervision of water-borne traffic when connected with a railroad, the regulation of interstate pip (oil) lines, as well as of telegraphs, telephones, and cables. A trade in commodities and transport thereof, originating and completed within a State is intrastate commerce, subject to State, not Federal, regulation; but a transaction that calls for tran hipment of the goods from one State to another becomes interstate commerce, since delivery nece itates the use of transit facilities that operate in more than one State. The control of interstate commerce in its intimate connection with railroad traffic became imperative following the great expansion of railroads after the Civil War. Interstate commerce, as such, could take care of itself; but the railroads, plunging past State lines and -scorning State control, ran wild in their liberty, like overgrown, refactory children. Competition was stifled by pools, rate discriminations became a scandal, favored shippers were enriched by the ruin of busine rivals, and the development of towns and localities were at the mercy of lines which dictated whether a community should or should not have transportation. Most of the traffic lay ‘wholly outside State control. The Interstate Commerce CommisSion was created by Congre , in 1887, to remedy the evils arising from the unregulated and unscrupulous operation of railroads between the States. It set out to obtain just transportation charges, check discrimination favoring one shipper ‘at the expense of his competitor, and prevent the pooling of freights. Following this measure came the Sherman Anti-trust Law, 1890, which further regulated the transit of interstate commerce by defining as illegal all combinations ' that throttled competition and were thus in restraint of trade or commerce between the States. Under this law the mergers of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern, 1903, and of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, railroad systems were di olved by the U.S. Supreme Court. The original law establishing the ComMi ion was amplified by other measures, Strengthening that body’s powers, such as giving it authority to fix railroad rates and preventing the granting of illegal rebates. The rates established by the Commi ion are unappealable unle Contested on constitutional grounds. See RariRoaps. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COM