209 U.S.. Opinion of the Court. proper sense is the public a general manager. As said in lat. Co?n. Corn. v. A?. Mid. R. R. Co., 168 U.S. 144, 172, quoting from the opinion of Circuit Judge Jackson, afterwards Mr. Jus- tice Jackson of this court, in lat. Co, n. Corn. v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 43 Fed. Rep. 37, 50: "Subject to the two leading prohibitions that their charges shall not be 'unjust or unreasonable, and that they shall not unjustly disoriminate so as to give undue preference or ?ad- vantage to peruohs or traffic similarly circum?.tanced, the act to regulate commerce leave? common carriers, as they were at the common law, free to make special rates looking to the in- cre?e of their business, to cb-?fy their traffic, to adjust and apportion the. it rates so as to meet the nece?ties of commerce and of their own situation and relation to it, and generally to r?o?ge their important interest? upon the same principles which are regarded as sound and adopted in other trade? and It follows that railroad companies may contract with ship- pers for a single transportation or for successive trausportao tions, subject though it may he to a ch?n? of rates in the manner provided in the Interstate Commerce Act--Armo? Packing Co. v. The Ua?ted States, ante, p. 56, and also that in fixing their own rates they may take into account competi- tion with other carriers, provided only that the competition is genuine and not a pretense. lat. Corn. Corn. v. B. & O. R. U.S. 197; lat. Corn. Corn. v. Ala. Mid. R?I. Co., supra; L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Behlmer, 175 U.S. 648; East Tenn. &c. R?I. Co. v. Int. Corn. Corn., 181 U.S. 1; Int. 'Corn. Corn. v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 190 U.S. 273. It must also be remembered that there is no presumption of wrong arising from a change of rate by a carrier. The pre- sumption of honest intent and right conduct attends the ac- tion of carriers as well as it does the action of other corpora- tionh or individuals in their transactions in life. Undoubtedly when rates are changed the carrier making the change must,
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