the line of the issuing carrier; to railway mail service employees, post-office inspectors, customs inspectors and immigration inspectors; to newsboys on trains, baggage agents, witnesses attending any legal investigation or proceeding in which the common carrier is interested, persons injured in accidents or wrecks and physicians and nurses attending such persons; to the carriage free or at reduced rates of persons or property for the United States, state or municipal governments, or of property to or from fairs and expositions for exhibit thereat. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit the interchange of free or reduced transportation between common carriers of or for their officers, agents, employees, attorneys and surgeons and their families, nor to prohibit any common carrier from carrying passengers or property free, with the object of providing relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence or other calamitous visitation; nor to prohibit any common carrier from transporting persons or property as incident to or connected with contracts for construction, operation or maintenance, and to the extent only that such free transportation is provided for in the contract for such work.

Provided further, that nothing in this act shall prevent the issuance of mileage, excursion, or commutation passenger tickets, or joint interchangeable mileage tickets, with special privileges as to the amount of free baggage that may be carried under mileage tickets of one thousand miles or more. But before any common carrier, subject to the provision of this act, shall issue any such mileage, excursion, commutation passenger ticket or joint interchangeable mileage ticket, with special privileges as aforesaid, it shall file with the commission copies of the tariffs of rates, fares or charges on which such tickets are to be based, together with the specifications of the amount of free baggage permitted to be carried under such joint interchangeable mileage ticket, in the same manner as common carriers are required to do with regard to other rates by this act. Nor shall anything in this act prevent the issuance of passenger transportation in exchange for advertising space in newspapers at full rates.

§ 34. False Billing, etc., by Carrier or Shipper.-No common carrier or any officer or agent thereof or any person acting for or employed by it, shall assist, suffer or permit any person or corporation to obtain transportation for any passenger, freight or property between points within this State at less than the rates then established and in force in accordance with the schedules filed and published in accordance with the provisions of this act, by means of false billing, false classification, false weight or weighing, or false report of weight, or by any other device or means. No person, corporation or any officer, agent or employee of a corporation, who shall deliver freight or property for transportation within the State to a common carrier, shall seek to obtain or obtain such transportation for such property at less than the rates then established and in force therefor, as aforesaid, by false billing, false or incorrect classification, false weight or weighing, false representation of the contents of a package, or false report or statement of weight, or by any other device or means, whether with or without the consent or connivance of the common carrier, or any of its officers, agents or employees.

§ 35. Discrimination Prohibited; Connecting Lines.Every common carrier is required to afford all reasonable, proper and equal facilities for the interchange of passenger, freight and property traffic between the lines owned, operated, controlled or leased by it and the lines of every common carrier, and for the prompt transfer of passengers and for the prompt receipt and forwarding of freight and property to and from its said lines; and no common carrier shall in any manner discriminate in respect to rates, fares or charges or in respect to any service or in respect to any charges or facilities for any such transfer in receiving or forwarding between any two or more other common carriers or between passengers, freight or property destined to points upon the lines of any two or more other common carriers or in any respect with reference to passengers, freight or property transferred or received from any two or more other common carriers. This section shall not be con

strued to require a common carrier to permit or allow any other common carrier to use its tracks or terminal facilities. Every common carrier, as such, is required to receive from every other common carrier, at a connecting point, freight cars of proper standard, and haul the same through to destination, if the destination be upon a line owned, operated or controlled by such common carrier, or if the destination be upon a line of some other common carrier, to haul any car so delivered through to the connecting point upon the line owned, operated, controlled or leased by it, by way of route over which such car is billed, and there to deliver the same to the next connecting carrier. Nothing in this section shall be construed as in anywise limiting or modifying the duty of a common carrier to establish joint rates, fares and charges for the transportation of passengers, freight and property over the lines owned, operated, controlled and leased by it and the lines of other common carriers, nor as in any manner limiting or modifying the power of the commission to require the establishment of such joint rates, fares and charges. A railroad corporation and a street railroad corporation shall not be required to interchange cars except on such terms and conditions as the commission may direct.

§ 36. Long and Short Haul.-No common carrier, subject to the provisions of this act, shall charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or of a like kind of property, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, for a shorter than for a longer distance over the same line in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; but this shall not be construed as authorizing any such common carrier to charge and receive as great a compensation for a shorter as for a longer distance or haul. Upon application of a common carrier the commission may by order authorize it to charge less for longer than for shorter distances for the transportation of passengers or property in special cases after investigation by the commission, but the order must specify and prescribe the extent to

which the common carrier making such application is relieved from the operation of this section, and only to the extent so specified and prescribed shall any common carrier be relieved from the operation and requirements of this section.

§ 37. Distribution of Cars.-1. Every railroad corporation or other common carrier engaged in the transportation of freight shall, upon reasonable notice, furnish to all persons and corporations who may apply therefor, and offer freight for transportation, sufficient and suitable cars for the transportation of such freight in car-load lots. Every railroad corporation and street railroad corporation shall have sufficient cars and motive power to meet all requirements for the transportation of passengers and property which may reasonably be anticipated, unless relieved therefrom by order of the commission. In case, at any particular time, a common carrier has not sufficient cars to meet all requirements for the transportation of property in car-load lots, all cars available to it for such purposes shall be distributed among the several applicants therefor, without discrimination between shippers, localities or competitive or non-competitive points, but preference may always be given in the supply of cars for shipment of livestock or perishable property.

2. The commission shall have power to make, and by order shall make, reasonable regulations for the furnishing and distribution of freight cars to shippers, for the switching of the same, for the loading and unloading thereof, for demurrage charges in respect thereto, and for the weighing of cars and freight offered for shipment or transported by any common carrier.

§ 38. Liability for Damage to Property in Transit.— Every common carrier and every railroad corporation and street railroad corporation shall, upon demand, issue either a receipt or bill of lading for all property delivered to it for transportation. No contract, stipulation or clause in any receipt or bill of lading shall exempt or be held to exempt any common

carrier, railroad corporation or street railroad corporation from any liability for loss, damage or injury caused by it to freight or property from the time of its delivery for transportation until the same shall have been received at its destination and a reasonable time shall have elapsed after notice to consignee of such arrival to permit of the removal of such freight or property. Every common carrier, railroad corporation and street railroad corporation shall be liable for all loss, damage or injury to property caused by delay in transit due to negligence while the same is being carried by it, but in any action to recover for damages sustained by delay in transit the burden of proof shall be upon the defendant to show that such delay was not due to negligence. Every common carrier and railroad corporation shall be liable for loss, damage and injury to property carried as baggage up to the full value and regardless of the character thereof, but the value in excess of one hundred and fifty dollars shall be stated upon delivery to the carrier, and a written receipt stating the value shall be issued by the carrier, who may make a reasonable charge for the assumption of such liability in excess of one hundred and fifty dollars and for the carriage of baggage exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds in weight upon a single ticket. Nothing in this section shall deprive any holder of such receipt or bill of lading of any remedy or right of action which he has under existing law.

§ 39. Continuous Carriage.-No common carrier shall enter into or become a party to any combination, contract, agreement or understanding, written or oral, express or implied, to prevent by any arrangement or by change of arrangement of time schedule, by carriage in different cars or by any other means or device whatsoever the carriage of freight and property from being continuous from the place of shipment to the place of destination. No breakage of bulk, stoppage or interruption of carriage made by any common carrier shall prevent the carriage of freight and property from being treated as one continuous carriage from the place of shipment to the place of destination. Nor shall any such breakage of bulk, stoppage or