that, in the Cade Case, we have held it to be a police regulation designed to promote the prompt payment of small but well founded claims, and to discourage unnecessary litigation in respect to them; and have held it, in its general application, to be not repugnant to either the "equal protection" or the "due process" clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Such being the character of the statute, and it having a broad sweep which only incidentally includes claims arising out of interstate commerce, it follows that it cannot be held to constitute a direct burden upon such commerce and hence repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution, or otherwise in conflict with the Federal authority, in the absence of legislation by Congress covering the subject. To this extent, the case is controlled by the decision in Atlantic Coast Line R. R. v. Mazursky, 216 U. S. 122, where it was held that a South Carolina statute which required common carriers doing business in the State to settle claims for loss or damage to property while in the possession of the carrier within forty days, in case of shipments wholly within the State, and within ninety days, in case of shipments from without the State, and that failure to adjust and pay a claim within the prescribed period should subject the carrier to a penalty of fifty dollars in case the full amount claimed was recovered, as the statute was applied to a claim for loss or damage to interstate freight while in the possession of the carrier within the State, was not an unwarrantable interference with interstate commerce, in the absence of legislation by Congress, but was rather a regulation in aid of the performance by the carrier of its legal duty. The decision was rested upon the authority and reasoning of Sherlock v. Alling, 93 U. S. 99, 104; Smith v. Alabama, 124 U. S. 465, 476; Nashville &c. Ry. v. Alabama, 128 U. S. 96; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650, 660; Chicago, Mil. & St. P. Ry. v. Solan, 169 U. S. 133, 137; Pennsyl

234 U. S.

Opinion of the Court.

vania R. R. Co. v. Hughes, 191 U. S. 477, 491; Missouri Pacific Ry. v. Larabee Mills, 211 U. S. 612, 623. And see Western Union Tel. Co. v. Milling Co., 218 U. S. 406, 416; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Crovo, 220 U. S. 364; Minnesota Rate Cases, 230 U. S. 352, 402, 408, 410.

But the "Act to Regulate Commerce" (Act of February 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379), is now invoked, together with its amendments, and especially that part of the Hepburn Act of June 29, 1906, known as the Carmack Amendment (c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584, 595); and it remains to be considered whether the Texas statute, as applied to claims for loss or damage to interstate freight while in the possession of the carrier in the State of Texas, is repugnant to this Federal legislation. It is of course settled that when Congress has exerted its paramount legislative authority over a particular subject of interstate commerce, state laws upon the same subject are superseded. Northern Pacific Ry. v. Washington, 222 U. S. 370, 378; Erie Railroad Co. v. New York, decided May 25, 1914, 233 U. S. 671. But it is equally well settled that the mere creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the grant to it of a measure of control over interstate commerce, does not of itself, and in the absence of specific action by the Commission or by Congress itself, interfere with the authority of the States to establish regulations conducive to the welfare and convenience of their citizens, even though interstate commerce be thereby incidentally affected, so long as it be not directly burdened or interfered with. Missouri Pacific Ry. v. Larabee Mills, 211 U. S. 612, 623; Southern Ry. Co. v. Reid, 222 U. S. 424, 437.

In the Larabee Mills Case it was held that the railroad company, by engaging in the business of a common carrier, had become subject to certain duties imposed upon it by general law, including the obligation to treat all shippers alike; that the enforcement of this duty and the regulation of matters pertaining to it were within the authority VOL. CCXXXIV-27

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of the State, although interstate commerce was thereby indirectly affected; and that until specific action by Congress or the Commission, the control of the State over such incidental matters remained undisturbed. Hence, a decision by the Supreme Court of Kansas, awarding a mandamus to require the company to restore the service of transferring cars between the lines of another railroad and the Larabee Mills and Elevator, in aid of interstate and intrastate shipments alike, was affirmed. This case arose after the enactment of the Hepburn Act.

On the other hand, it was held in the Reid Case that since Congress had taken control of the subject of the making of rates and charges, and by § 2 of the Hepburn Act had forbidden the carrier to engage or participate in transportation unless the rates, fares, and charges had been filed and published in accordance with the provisions of the act, a state law requiring railroad companies to receive freight for transportation whenever tendered at a regular station and to forward the same over the route selected by the person offering the shipment, under a penalty of fifty dollars a day besides all damages incurred, was in necessary conflict, since it required the carrier to do the very things forbidden by the Federal law.

So in Chicago, R. I. &c. Ry. v. Hardwick Elevator Co., 226 U. S. 426, it was held that since by the Hepburn Act, Congress had legislated concerning deliveries of cars in interstate commerce by carriers subject to the act, specifically requiring the carrier to provide and furnish "transportation" (cars being embraced within the definition of the term) upon reasonable request, the authority of the State of Minnesota to legislate upon the subject of the delivery of cars when called for to be used in interstate traffic was superseded. And see Yazoo & Mississippi R. R. v. Greenwood Grocery Co., 227 U. S. 1.

These cases recognize the established rule that a state law enacted under any of the reserved powers-especially

if under the police power-is not to be set aside as inconsistent with an act of Congress, unless there is actual repugnancy, or unless Congress has, at least, manifested a purpose to exercise its paramount authority over the subject. The rule rests upon fundamental grounds that should not be disregarded. In Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137, 148, the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Harlan, said: "It should never be held that Congress intends to supersede or by its legislation suspend the exercise of the police powers of the States, even when it may do so, unless its purpose to effect that result is clearly manifested. This court has said-and the principle has been often reaffirmed that 'In the application of this principle of supremacy of an act of Congress in a case where the state law is but the exercise of a reserved power, the repugnance or conflict should be direct and positive, so that the two acts could not be reconciled or consistently stand together.' Sinnot v. Davenport, 22 How. 227, 243." In Savage v. Jones, 225 U. S. 501, 533, the court said: "When the question is whether a Federal act overrides a state law, the entire scheme of the statute must of course be considered and that which needs must be implied is of no less force than that which is expressed. If the purpose of the act cannot otherwise be accomplished-if its operation within its chosen field else must be frustrated and its provisions be refused their natural effect-the state law must yield to the regulation of Congress within the sphere of its delegated power [citing cases]. But the intent to supersede the exercise by the State of its police power as to matters not covered by the Federal legislation is not to be inferred from the mere fact that Congress has seen fit to circumscribe its regulation and to occupy a limited field. In other words, such intent is not to be implied unless the act of Congress fairly interpreted is in actual conflict with the law of the State." [Citing many cases.]

With respect to the specific effect of the Carmack

Amendment (set forth in the margin 1), it has been held, in a series of recent cases (Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491; C., B. & Q. Railway v. Miller, 226 U. S. 513; Chicago, St. P. &c. Ry. v. Latta, 226 U. S. 519; Wells, Fargo & Co. v. Neiman-Marcus Co., 227 U. S. 469; Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Carl, 227 U. S. 639; Missouri, Kans. & Tex. Ry. Co. v. Harriman, 227 U. S. 657; Chicago, R. I. & Pac. Ry. Co. v. Cramer, 232 U. S. 490; Great Northern Ry. v. O'Connor, 232 U. S. 508; Boston & Maine R. R. v. Hooker, 233 U. S. 97), that the special regulations and policies of particular States upon the subject of the carrier's liability for loss or damage to interstate shipments and the contracts of carriers with respect thereto, have been superseded.

But the Texas statute now under consideration does not in anywise either enlarge or limit the responsibility of the carrier for the loss of property entrusted to it in transportation, and only incidentally affects the remedy for enforcing that responsibility. As pointed out in the Cade

1 That any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company receiving property for transportation from a point in one State to a point in another State shall issue a receipt or bill of lading therefor and shall be liable to the lawful holder thereof for any loss, damage, or injury to such property caused by it or by any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company to which such property may be delivered or over whose line or lines such property may pass, and no contract, receipt, rule, or regulation shall exempt such common carrier, railroad, or transportation company from the liability hereby imposed; Provided, That nothing in this section shall deprive any holder of such receipt or bill of lading of any remedy or right of action which he has under existing law.

That the common carrier, railroad, or transportation company issuing such receipt or bill of lading shall be entitled to recover from the common carrier, railroad, or transportation company on whose line the loss, damage, or injury shall have been sustained the amount of such loss, damage, or injury as it may be required to pay to the owners of such property, as may be evidenced by any receipt, judgment, or transcript thereof.