This suit, under the Act of October 22, 1913, c. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 220 (28 USCA § 47) was brought in the federal court for Western South Carolina, to set aside an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission dated June 9, 1930. Restriction in Routing in Connection with the Georgia & Florida Railroad, 165 I. C. C. 3. The plaintiffs are the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the Charleston & Western Railroad. The defendants are the United States, and, by intervention, the Commission, the Piedmont & Northern Railway, and the Georgia & Florida Railroad. The order assailed was entered under section 15(7) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 USCA § 15(7). It requires the cancellation of provisions in tariff schedules by which the plaintiffs seek to exclude the Georgia & Florida from participating as connecting carrier in through routes established over the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway. The Commission held that the restrictive schedules violated the conditions under which that railroad had been leased to the Atlantic Coast Line and the Louisville & Nashville. Clinchfield Railway Lease, 90 I. C. C. 113. The District Court, three judges sitting, sustained the validity of the order and dismissed the bill. 48 F.(2d) 239. The case is here on direct appeal. We are of opinion that the decree should be affirmed.
The Clinchfield Railway extends in a southerly direction from Elkhorn City, Ky., to Spartanburg, S.C.., a distance of 276.85 miles. The Atlantic Coast Line system lies to the east and south. To the west and south lies the Louisville & Nashville, of whose stock 51 per cent, is owned by the Coast Line. The Clinchfield is a link in many possible routes between points in the Southeastern States and the North, in addition to those routes which are over the Atlantic Coast Line or the Louisville & Nashville. At Elkhorn City, the Clinchfield connects with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, whose system extends east, north, and west. At Spartanburg, the Clinchfield connects with the Piedmont & Northern, which extends in a southerly direction to Greenwood, S.C.. And, at Greenwood, the Piedmont & Northern connects with a recently built extension of the Georgia & Florida, which now has 464 miles of line in the three Southeastern States. The restrictive schedules excluded from the joint rates traffic over the Clinchfield if routed via the Georgia & Florida. Such traffic was thereby subjected to the applicable combination of higher local rates. The effect of this was to prevent not only the Georgia & Florida, but also the Piedmont & Northern, the intermediate carrier, from participating in such business, with the result that the traffic would be secured for the Charleston & Western, which the Atlantic Coast Line controls through stock ownership.