Willamette Iron & Steel Works v. Baltimore & O. R. Co.

This was an action to enforce a reparation order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in a proceeding brought by the Willamette Iron & Steel Works against numerous transportation companies. The order was based on overcharges on shipments of structural steel from Eastern points to Portland, Or. It appears from the report of the Commission that in August, 1919, the shipbuilding interests on tiie Pacific Coast applied to the United States Railroad Administration for a reduction in the rates on steel plates used in ship construction, claiming that the continued existence of the steel shipbuilding industry in that section depended in a large measure on a reduction in rates on steel, to enable shipbuilders there to meet the competition of shipbuilders in Eastern states and in the Orient. After correspondence with various railroad traffic officials, the Director General of Railroads concluded that rates could *81 be published, limited in their application to steel plates used in ship construction, and that ship plates could mean only plate steel of the thickness required for hull construction, which had been prepared specially for that purpose and tested and approved for such use by…