That the fixing of the rates or charges that may be collected by public service corporations for the services rendered by them is, primarily at least, a legislative function, is so well established that the citation of authorities is scarcely necessary.10 Indeed, it was originally held in Munn v. Illinois11 that this power was so exclusively legislative that the validity of the laws in regulation of business affected with a public interest could not be questioned by the courts under the due process of law clauses of the Constitution.12

In the States the delegation by the legislative body, to commis sions or other boards, of authority to fix rates has been generally sustained where by law general principles have been established for the guidance and control of these administrative bodies in the exercise, in specific instances, of their rate-making powers.

In a number of instances these laws have come before the Supreme Court of the United States, but not in such a way as to compel that court to pronounce squarely upon their constitutionality as tested by the principle that legislative power may not be delegated by the law-making body to an administrative board or commission. And, indeed, this is a question of state constitutional law with which the federal courts have no concern. It is only when the allegation is made that the rates as fixed, whether directly by the legislature or by another authority, are confiscatory, and, therefore, operate to deprive either the railway or the shipper of property without due process of law, that a federal question is raised.

10 In Atlantic C. L. R. Co. v. North Carolina Corp. Com. (206 U. S. 1; 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 585; 51 L. ed. 933) a long list of cases as to this are cited in a footnote. See also the valuable monograph of Mr. R. P. Reeder entitled "Rate Regulation as Affected by the Distribution of Governmental Powers in the Constitutions."

11 94 U. S. 113; 24 L. ed. 77.

12 See Chapter XLVI (Due Process Of Law. 460. Due Process Of Law: Definition Of).

It is true, however, that the Supreme Court in a number of instances has intimated that the rate-making power may be delegated, but these cannot be said to be precedents, or indeed to indicate with any decisiveness what the position of that tribunal will be when the point is brought squarely before it.

That a considerable amount of regulative control over railways may constitutionally be delegated to the Interstate Commerce Commission has not been disputed. It was not until the act of 1906, however, that that body was intrusted by Congress with the authority to fix in specific instances the rates that interstate railways might charge. By that law it is provided that the rates which these companies may legally fix, or which may be fixed for them by the Commission, must be "just and reasonable." This is, practically, the only principle legislatively laid down for the guidance and control of the Commission. The question, therefore, which still awaits final judicial settlement by the Supreme Court is whether this provision of the law may fairly be said to lay down a sufficiently definite rule which the Commission is merely to apply to specific cases as they arise, to warrant the determination that that body has not been endowed with a discretionary power of fixing rates which is in fact legislative. The opinion may, however, be hazarded that, arguing from Field v. Clark, Buttfield v. Stranahan, and Union Bridge Co. v. United States, the act of 1906 will be sustained.12a