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Discusses two cases arising out of the attempt of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under the Packers and Stockyards Act to regulate the rates of marketing agencies in the Kansas City Stockyards. Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse and remand the judgment of the lower court to deny injunction; Statutory requirement of a hearing; Administrative duties of a Secretary and an assistant secretary.

The article discusses the evolution of cost of reproduction as the rate basis. To the ordinary reader, lay or professional, it would seem clear that if "Smyth v. Ames" settled anything at all it determined that cost of reproduction alone is not the " fair value " which is " the basis of all calculations as to the reasonableness of rates " to be charged by a public utility for its service. That the question was involved in "Smyth v. Ames" is apparent from a consideration of the facts. The Union Pacific railrpad had been built just after the Civil War, when prices were high, across two thousand miles of unoccupied country. Stock jobbing and contract jobbing there had doubtless been, but in the very nature of the case the construction of the road had been enormously expensive.

This article analyses the power of a public utility to fix its rates and charges in the absence of regulatory legislation. According to the author, during the last half-century, courts have become so accustomed to legislative exercise of the power to regulate rates and charges of public utilities that when they are confronted with a legal failure of the legislative plan, because of unconstitutionality or other reason, there is some danger that fundamentals will be forgotten. An examination of the position at common law as that term is here used is deemed important, for in the absence of applicable legislative regulation it is submitted that the common law applies.

Discusses the establishment of the legislative power to restrict rates charged for services of public utilities in the U.S. Result of a constitutional guaranty of a fair return upon a value based upon present earnings; Variation in the market quotations of railroad stocks from day to day; Fluctuation of actual value.

The article reports that the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) has received requests from its members for a low cost group flights to the CEC's annual meeting on April 22-27, 1973 in Dallas, Texas. The staff members of the council has responded to the members' request, and discovered that from group airfares, it can eventually make a 25 to 30 percent savings. The group airfares require a minimum of 10 people who will travel together to Dallas on April 22 or 24, 1973. Contact information for those who are interested to avail for the promotion is presented.