MR. JUSTICE RUTLEDGE delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an appeal from a decree of a statutory three judge court,
Associated Transport, Inc., was organized in Delaware in March, 1941, to bring about the proposed merger. In July, 1941, it applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission, under § 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended (49 U.S.C. § 5; 54 Stat. 898, 905), to obtain control of eight motor carriers, through purchase of their capital stock, and to consolidate their operating rights and properties into one unit within a year from the
Before the Commission, approval of the applications was opposed by the Secretary of Agriculture, the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice, the National Grange, four fruit growers associations and Super Service Motor Freight Company, a motor carrier.
The principal issues, later set forth with particularity, are intertwined. They relate to whether the Commission applied a proper standard in concluding to approve the merger; whether it failed to give due weight to the prohibitions and policies of the anti-trust laws; and whether, upon the evidence and within the meaning of § 5 (2) (b)
In one respect, however, the case as presented to the court was in different posture than as it came to the Commission. This change arose from the elimination of one of the constituent companies, Arrow Carrier Corporation, from the merger between the time the Commission's orders were rendered and the hearing in the District Court. After the suit was begun the Commission, on the applicant's petition, modified its orders to exclude Arrow. Accordingly the Commission also amended its answer to indicate the change, and the case was decided on the orders as modified. They present the only questions for our consideration. It may be noted that the elimination of Arrow has bearing upon the issue relating to anti-trust policy, but more particularly on that relating to railroad affiliation.
The eight carriers originally sought to be merged
As a result of the proposed merger Associated will be the largest single motor carrier in the United States — at least in terms of its estimated revenues — and no other single motor carrier will compete with it throughout its service area. Nevertheless, after careful consideration and on evidence clearly sufficient to sustain it, the Commission found that on completion of the merger "there would remain ample competitive motor-carrier service throughout the territory involved" and in addition that
In connection with Arrow's participation, the Commission found that The Transport Company, whose stock was wholly owned by Kuhn, Loeb and Company, had an option to purchase Arrow's common stock and would receive Associated's stock therefor when the merger was effected. The stock thus received, together with 9,000 shares of Associated's common stock already held, would give The Transport Company, and through it Kuhn, Loeb and Company, 6,877 shares of Associated's preferred and 67,167 of Associated's common, a total of 13 per cent and 9.53 per cent, respectively, of the preferred and common stocks expected to be outstanding at the conclusion of the transactions.
I.
The pertinent provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, which is controlling, are set forth in the margin.
However, in two particulars, pertinent especially to the issues concerning anti-trust policy and railroad affiliation, § 5 lays down more explicit commands. One is a specific exemption of carriers and individuals participating in an approved merger "from the operation of the antitrust laws and of all other restraints, limitations, and prohibitions of law, Federal, State, or municipal, insofar as may be necessary to enable them to carry into effect the transactions
II.
As has been said, they are intertwined. This is true especially of the issues concerning the propriety of the standards applied and whether due consideration was given to the anti-trust laws and policies, although the question of rail affiliation is closely related to both.
The chief attack on the orders is that the Commission improperly construed the standards by which Congress intended it to determine the propriety of a consolidation; and the burden of this complaint is that it did so "by failing to consider and give due weight to the anti-trust and other laws of the United States." The argument seems to be that the merger, notwithstanding the Commission's approval, violates the Sherman Act; hence the Commission is without power to approve the merger. This presupposes that Congress did not intend, by enacting the specific exemption of § 5 (11), to give the Commission leeway to approve any merger which, but for the exemption
It is conceded this is not true of rail consolidations, though they are authorized, and subjected to the same standards, by the identical sections of the statute. A difference in application of the language is said to arise from the difference which existed in the conditions under which rail and motor carriers, respectively, were brought within the purview of the statutory commands. Thus, it is said, the Transportation Act of 1920 (41 Stat. 456) made a broad departure from previous policy by relieving rail consolidations, with the Commission's approval, from anti-trust restrictions in order to rehabilitate a brokendown industry. But, it is also said, such a condition did not characterize motor carriers when they were brought under regulation in 1935 or at the time of any subsequent legislation affecting them. Hence, it is admitted the Commission with propriety may approve a rail consolidation, otherwise prohibited by the anti-trust laws, in order to bring about needed or desirable improvement in service and economies in operation. But, as to motor carriers, it is urged the consolidation cannot be effected with any such purposes or consequences. Only when the existing service is inadequate and consolidation is necessary to bring about adequate service to the public, the argument runs, can the Commission approve it.
On its face the contention would seem to run in the teeth of the language and the purpose of § 5 (11). Nothing in its terms indicates an intention to create one authority
III.
To secure the continuous, close and informed supervision which enforcement of legislative mandates frequently requires, Congress has vested expert administrative bodies such as the Interstate Commerce Commission with broad discretion and has charged them with the duty to execute stated and specific statutory policies. That delegation does not necessarily include either the duty or the authority to execute numerous other laws. Thus, here, the Commission has no power to enforce the Sherman Act as such. It cannot decide definitively whether the transaction contemplated constitutes a restraint of trade or an attempt to monopolize which is forbidden by that Act. The Commission's task is to enforce the Interstate Commerce Act and other legislation which deals specifically with transportation facilities and problems. That
But in executing those policies the Commission may be faced with overlapping and at times inconsistent policies embodied in other legislation enacted at different times and with different problems in view. When this is true, it cannot, without more, ignore the latter. The precise adjustments which it must make, however, will vary from instance to instance depending on the extent to which Congress indicates a desire to have those policies leavened or implemented in the enforcement of the various specific provisions of the legislation with which the Commission is primarily and directly concerned. Cf. National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 190; New York Central Securities Corp. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12.
The national transportation policy is the product of a long history of trial and error by Congress in attempting to regulate the nation's transportation facilities beginning with the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
Since that initial effort at reshaping regulation of railroads to "ensure . . . adequate transportation service,"
The history of the development of the special national transportation policy suggests, quite apart from the explicit provision of § 5 (11), that the policies of the antitrust laws determine "the public interest" in railroad regulation only in a qualified way. And the altered emphasis in railroad legislation on achieving an adequate, efficient, and economical system of transportation through close supervision of business operations and practices rather than through heavy reliance on the enforcement of free competition in various phases of the business, cf. New York Central Securities Corp. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12, has its counterpart in motor carrier policy. The premises of motor carrier regulation posit some curtailment of free and unrestrained competition.
Whatever may be the case with respect either to other kinds of transactions by or among carriers
Therefore, the Commission is not bound, as appellants urge, to accede to the policies of the anti-trust laws so completely that only where "inadequate" transportation facilities are sought to be made "adequate" by consolidation can their dictates be overborne by "the public interest." That view, in effect, would require the Commission to permit only those consolidations which would not offend the anti-trust laws. As has been said, this would render meaningless the exemption relieving the participants in a properly approved merger of the requirements of those laws, and would ignore the fact that the Motor Carrier Act is to be administered with an eye to affirmatively improving transportation facilities, not merely to preserving existing arrangements or competitive practices.
Congress however neither has made the anti-trust laws wholly inapplicable to the transportation industry nor has authorized the Commission in passing on a proposed merger to ignore their policy. Congress recognized that the process of consolidating motor carriers would result in some diminution of competition and might result in the creation of monopolies. To prevent the latter effect and to make certain that the former was permitted only where appropriate to further the national transportation policy, it placed in the Commission power to control such developments.
In short, the Commission must estimate the scope and appraise the effects of the curtailment of competition which will result from the proposed consolidation and consider them along with the advantages of improved service, safer operation, lower costs, etc., to determine whether the consolidation will assist in effectuating the over-all transportation policy. Resolving these considerations is a complex task which requires extensive facilities, expert judgment and considerable knowledge of the transportation industry. Congress left that task to the Commission "to the end that the wisdom and experience of that Commission may be used not only in connection with this form of transportation, but in its coordination of all other forms." 79 Cong. Rec. 12207. "The wisdom and experience of that commission," not of the courts, must determine whether the proposed consolidation is
IV.
The Commission found, as has been noted, that the proposed consolidation would result in improved transportation service, greater efficiency of operation and substantial operating economies. The higher load factor on trucks, reduction in the number of trucks used and the mileage traversed would lead to more efficient use of equipment and save motor fuel. Terminal facilities would be consolidated and used more effectively, through movement of freight would reduce costs and in a multitude of other ways the stability and safety of the service rendered would be enhanced.
The Commission determined, on the basis of facts appearing in the record and its experience with other consolidations, that it was not likely that Associated's size and competitive advantages would enable it to control the price and character of interchange traffic, to drain off substantial amounts of shippers' business or in other ways to smother the competition of other motor carriers. It concluded that ample competition would remain and, weighing all the factors, that the consolidation was "consistent with the public interest."
Necessarily in its inquiry the Commission had to speculate to some extent as to the future consequences and effects of a present consolidation. But it based its judgment on available facts as to present operations and business practices and past experience with transportation operations and analogous transactions.
We cannot say that the Commission measured "the public interest" by standards other than those Congress provided or that its findings do not comply with the requirements of the Act. The material findings are supported by evidence; and while a more meticulous regard for its function might have impelled the Commission to accede to the Anti-Trust Division's request for certain information from other shippers bearing on the question of
V.
Appellants also attack the propriety of the Commission's conclusion that Associated is not, and would not be, on consummation of the consolidation, "affiliated" with any railroad. Whatever might have been the case if Arrow had been included in the merger, a different question is presented by the orders now under review.
Section 5 (2) provides:
"That if . . . any person which is controlled by a [rail] carrier, or affiliated therewith within the meaning of paragraph (6), is an applicant in the case of any such proposed transaction involving a motor carrier, the Commission shall not enter such an order unless it finds that the transaction proposed will be consistent with the public interest and will enable such carrier to use service by motor vehicle to public advantage in its operations and will not unduly restrain competition."
Section 5 (6) provides:
"For the purposes of this section a person shall be held to be affiliated with a carrier if, by reason of the relationship of such person to such carrier (whether by reason of the method of, or circumstances surrounding organization or operation, or whether established through common directors, officers, or stockholders, a voting trust or trusts, a holding or investment company or companies, or any other direct or indirect means), it is reasonable to believe that the affairs of any carrier of which control may be acquired by such person will be managed in the interest of such other carrier."
The only relevant evidence now pointing toward affiliation of the applicant with rail carriers are the facts that Kuhn, Loeb and Company indirectly owns 9,000 shares
Accordingly the judgment is
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE MURPHY is of the opinion that the judgment should be reversed.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, with whom MR. JUSTICE BLACK concurs, dissenting:
I think that the Commission misconceived its authority under the merger and consolidation provisions of the Act. I agree that the Commission is not to measure motor vehicle consolidations by the standards of the anti-trust acts. Such a construction would make largely meaningless, as the opinion of the Court demonstrates, the power of the Commission under § 5 (11) to relieve participants in mergers or consolidations from the requirements of those acts. But I think a proper construction of the Act requires the Commission to give greater weight to the principles of competition than it apparently has done here.
I agree that the standard of the "public interest" which governs mergers and consolidations under § 5 embraces the national transportation policy contained in the Act. That declared policy calls, among other things, for the recognition and preservation of "the inherent advantages" of motor vehicle transportation; the promotion of "safe, adequate, economical, and efficient service" and the fostering of "sound economic conditions in transportation and among the several carriers"; the establishment and maintenance of reasonable charges "without unjust discriminations, undue preference or advantages, or unfair or destructive competitive practices" — to the end of "developing, coordinating, and preserving a national transportation system" which is "adequate to meet" the national needs. 54 Stat. 899. Those standards are specifically referred
But I am of the opinion that the concept of the "public interest" as used in § 5 also embraces the anti-trust laws. Those laws extend to carriers as well as to other enterprises. But for the approval of the Commission the present consolidation would run afoul of the Sherman Act. United States v. Southern Pacific Co., 259 U.S. 214. And the Clayton Act (which makes specific references to common carriers) by § 11 expressly entrusts the Commission with the authority of enforcement of its provisions "where applicable to common carriers." 38 Stat. 734, 15 U.S.C. § 21. Those laws still stand. We thus have a long standing policy of Congress to subject these common carriers to the anti-trust laws. And we should remember that, so far as motor vehicles are concerned, we are dealing with transportation units whose rights of way — the highways of the country — have been furnished by the public. These considerations indicate to me that while the power of Congress to authorize the Commission to lift the ban of the anti-trust laws in favor of common carriers is clear (New York Central Securities Corp. v. United States, 287 U.S. 12, 25-26), administrative authority to replace the competitive system with a cartel should be strictly construed. I would read § 5 of the Transportation Act so as to make for the greatest possible accommodation between the principles of competition and the national transportation policy. The occasions for the exercise of the administrative authority to grant exemptions from the anti-trust laws should be closely confined to those where the transportation need is clear.
For these reasons I would resolve the ambiguities of the Act in favor of the maintenance of free enterprise. If that is too niggardly an interpretation of the Act, Congress can rectify it. But if the Commission is allowed to take the other view,
But there is another phase of the case which in my view requires a reversal of the judgment below. The Commission has allowed the investment banker of railroad companies to be represented on the board of the motor vehicle company. It did so after a finding that it was not "reasonable to believe that the affairs of applicant would be managed in the interest of any railroad" and therefore that the motor vehicle company would not be affiliated with any railroad within the meaning of the Act. § 5 (5) (a), (6). But though we assume there was no such affiliation, I agree with Commissioner Patterson that that is not the end of the matter. The question still remains whether it is "consistent with the public interest" to allow such a banker's nexus between the two competitors. I cannot believe that Congress intended the Commission to treat such a matter as inconsequential. The whole history of finance urges caution when one investment banker stakes out his claim to two competing companies. Experience shows that when one gains a seat at his competitor's table, it is the beginning of the end of competition. A new zone of influence has been created. Its efficacy turns not on the amount of stock ownership but on a host of subtle and imponderable considerations. Such an intertwined relationship has been "the root of many evils" (Brandeis, Other People's Money, p. 51) and so demonstrably inimical to the "public interest" in the past as not to be disregarded today.
I agree that if § 5 were read as the Court reads it, the order of the Commission should be affirmed. But since the Commission took a view of the law which in my opinion was erroneous, I would reverse the judgment below so that the case might be returned to the Commission for reconsideration of the application under the proper construction of § 5.
FootNotes
There were 71,480 shares of Associated's common stock outstanding at the time the application was filed, of which 31,240 were held by the president of Associated, 9,000 by The Transport Company (received for engineering accounting data given in connection with the merger), and the remainder by stockholders in the corporations to be merged.
"Sec. 5. (1) Except upon specific approval by order of the Commission as in this section provided, and except as provided in paragraph (16) of section 1 of this part, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to this part, part II, or part III to enter into any contract, agreement, or combination with any other such common carrier or carriers for the pooling or division of traffic, or of service, or of gross or net earnings, or of any portion thereof; and in any case of an unlawful agreement for the pooling or division of traffic, service, or earnings as aforesaid each day of its continuance shall be a separate offense: Provided, That whenever the Commission is of opinion, after hearing upon application of any such carrier or carriers or upon its own initiative, that the pooling or division, to the extent indicated by the Commission, of their traffic, service, or gross or net earnings, or of any portion thereof, will be in the interest of better service to the public or of economy in operation, and will not unduly restrain competition, the Commission shall by order approve and authorize, if assented to by all the carriers involved, such pooling or division, under such rules and regulations, and for such consideration as between such carriers and upon such terms and conditions, as shall be found by the Commission to be just and reasonable in the premises: . . .
"(2) (a) It shall be lawful, with the approval and authorization of the Commission, as provided in subdivision (b) —
"(b) Whenever a transaction is proposed under subparagraph (a), the carrier or carriers or person seeking authority therefor shall present an application to the Commission, and thereupon the Commission shall notify the Governor of each State in which any part of the properties of the carriers involved in the proposed transaction is situated, and also such carriers and the applicant or applicants (and, in case carriers by motor vehicle are involved, the persons specified in section 205 (e)), and shall afford reasonable opportunity for interested parties to be heard. If the Commission shall consider it necessary in order to determine whether the findings specified below may properly be made, it shall set said application for public hearing, and a public hearing shall be held in all cases where carriers by railroad are involved. If the Commission finds that, subject to such terms and conditions and such modifications as it shall find to be just and reasonable, the proposed transaction is within the scope of subparagraph (a) and will be consistent with the public interest, it shall enter an order approving and authorizing such transaction, upon the terms and conditions, and with the modifications, so found to be just and reasonable: Provided, That if a carrier by railroad subject to this part, or any person which is controlled by such a carrier, or affiliated therewith within the meaning of paragraph (6), is an applicant in the case of any such proposed transaction involving a motor carrier, the Commission shall not enter such an order unless it finds that the transaction proposed will be consistent with the public interest and will enable such carrier to use service by motor vehicle to public advantage in its operations and will not unduly restrain competition.
"(c) In passing upon any proposed transaction under the provisions of this paragraph (2), the Commission shall give weight to the following considerations, among others: (1) The effect of the proposed transaction upon adequate transportation service to the public; (2) the effect upon the public interest of the inclusion, or failure to include, other railroads in the territory involved in the proposed transaction; (3) the total fixed charges resulting from the proposed transaction; and (4) the interest of the carrier employees affected.
.....
"(6) For the purposes of this section a person shall be held to be affiliated with a carrier if, by reason of the relationship of such person to such carrier (whether by reason of the method of, or circumstances surrounding organization or operation, or whether established through common directors, officers, or stockholders, a voting trust or trusts, a holding or investment company or companies, or any other direct or indirect means), it is reasonable to believe that the affairs of any carrier of which control may be acquired by such person will be managed in the interest of such other carrier.
"(11) The authority conferred by this section shall be exclusive and plenary, . . . and any carriers or other corporations, and their officers and employees and any other persons, participating in a transaction approved or authorized under the provisions of this section shall be and they are hereby relieved from the operation of the antitrust laws and of all other restraints, limitations, and prohibitions of law, Federal, State, or municipal, insofar as may be necessary to enable them to carry into effect the transactions so approved or provided for in accordance with the terms and conditions, if any, imposed by the Commission, and to hold, maintain, and operate any properties and exercise any control or franchises acquired through such transaction."
The Reports of the Coordinator of Transportation (Sen. Doc. No. 152, 73d Cong., 2d Sess.; H. Doc. 89, 74th Cong., 1st Sess.) on which the Act is in large measure based (79 Cong. Rec. 12207; Sen. Rep. No. 482, 74th Cong., 1st Sess.; H.R. Rep. No. 1645, 74th Cong., 1st Sess.) disclose graphically that among the evils with which the motor carrier industry was afflicted and which would be cured by the Act was unrestrained competition. It was anticipated that the Act would confer benefits on the industry "by promoting a more orderly conduct of the business, lessening irresponsible competition and undue internal strife, encouraging the organization of stronger units, and otherwise enabling the industry to put itself on a sounder and more generally profitable basis." H. Doc. 89, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. (1934) 127.
"At present most truck operations are small enterprises. However, there are many rumors of plans for the merging of existing operations into sizable systems. In view of past experience with railroad and public-utility unifications, it is regarded as necessary that the Commission have control over such developments, where the number of vehicles involved is sufficient to make the matter one of more than local importance." 79 Cong. Rec. 5654-5655.
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