gated in pursuance of it, and the 1903 amendment of that act, had the effect of regulating the height of draw-bars upon locomotive engines, as contended by plaintiff, or upon freight cars only, as contended by defendant.1

1 SAFETY APPLIANCE Act of March 2, 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531. "An Act to promote the safety of employés and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes, and for other, purposes.

Be it enacted, etc., That from and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to use on its line any locomotive engine in moving interstate traffic not equipped with a power driving-wheel brake and appliances for operating the train brake system, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with power or train brakes that the engineer on the locomotive drawing such train can control its speed without requiring brakemen to use the common hand brake for that purpose.

SEC. 2. That on and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.

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SEC. 5. That within ninety days from the passage of this act the American Railway Association is authorized hereby to designate to the Interstate Commerce Commission the standard height of drawbars for freight cars, measured perpendicular from the level of the tops of the rails to the centers of the drawbars, for each of the several gauges of railroads in use in the United States, and shall fix a maximum variation from such standard height to be allowed between the drawbars of empty and loaded cars. Upon their determination being certified to the Interstate Commerce Commission, said Commission shall at once give notice of the standard fixed upon to all common carriers, owners, or lessees engaged in interstate commerce in the United States by such means as the Commission may deem proper. But should said association fail to determine a standard as above provided, it shall be the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to do so, before July first, eighteen hundred and ninety four, and immediately to give

In Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 196 U. S. 1, a case that arose under the act as it stood before the 1903 amendment, it was held that the provision of § 2 rendering it "unlawful for any such common carrier to haul or permit

notice thereof as aforesaid. After July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, no cars, either loaded or unloaded, shall be used in interstate traffic which do not comply with the standard above provided for. SEC. 6. That any such common carrier using any locomotive engine, running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such violation Provided, that nothing in this act contained shall apply to trains composed of four-wheel cars or to locomotives used in hauling such trains.

SEC. 8. That any employé of any such common carrier who may be injured by any locomotive, car, or train in use contrary to the provision of this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such carrier after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car, or train had been brought to his knowledge."

AMENDMENT OF APRIL 1, 1896, c. 87, 29 Stat. 85.

"Be it enacted, etc., That section six of an Act entitled. . amended so as to read as follows:

be

'SEC. 6. That any such common carrier using any locomotive engine, running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this Act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such violation Provided, that nothing in this Act contained shall apply to trains composed of four-wheel cars or to trains composed of eight-wheel standard logging cars where the height of such car from top of rail to center of coupling does not exceed twenty-five inches, or to locomotives used in hauling such trains when such cars or loccmotives are exclusively used for the transportation of logs.' AMENDMENT Of March 2, 1903, c. 976, 32 Stat. 943.

"Be it enacted, etc., That the provisions and requirements of the Act entitled 'An Act to promote the safety of employés and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes, and for other purposes,' approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-three,

234 U. S.

Opinion of the Court.

to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars," was broad enough to embrace locomotive engines within the description "any car." This conclusion was based upon the declared purpose of Congress to promote the safety of employés and travelers upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and the specific intent to require the installation of such an equipment that the cars would couple with each other automatically by impact and obviate the necessity of men going between them either for coupling or for uncoupling. The court, by Mr.

and amended April first, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, shall be held to apply to common carriers by railroads in the Territories and the District of Columbia and shall apply in all cases, whether or not the couplers brought together are of the same kind, make, or type; and the provisions and requirements hereof and of said Acts relating to train brakes, automatic couplers, grab irons, and the height of drawbars shall be held to apply to all trains, locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles used on any railroad engaged in interstate commerce, and in the Territories and the District of Columbia, and to all other locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles used in connection therewith, excepting those trains, cars, and locomotives exempted by the provisions of section six of said act of March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, as amended by the act of April first, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, or which are used upon street railways."

AMENDMENT OF APRIL 14, 1910, c. 160, 36 Stat. 298.

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"SEC. 3. Said Commission is hereby given authority, after hearing, to modify or change, and to prescribe the standard height of draw bars and to fix the time within which such modification or change shall become effective and obligatory, and prior to the time so ixed it shall be unlawful to use any car or vehicle in interstate or foreign raffic which does not comply with the standard now fixed or the tandard so prescribed, and after the time so fixed it shall be unlawful o use any car or vehicle in interstate or foreign traffic which does not comply with the standard so prescribed by the commission."

Opinion of the Court.

234 U.S.

Chief Justice Fuller, pointed out (pp. 20, 21) that by the amendment of March 2, 1903, the provisions and requirements of the act were extended to common carriers by railroad in the Territories and the District of Columbia, and were made to apply "in all cases, whether or not the couplers brought together are of the same kind, make, or type," and that the provisions and requirements relating to train brakes, automatic couplers, grab irons, and the height of draw-bars, were made to apply to "all trains, locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles used on any railroad engaged in interstate commerce." And it was said that this amendment was affirmative and declaratory of the meaning attributed by the court to the prior law.

In Schlemmer v. Buffalo, Rochester &c. Railway, 205 U. S. 1, 10, it was held that a shovel car was within the contemplation of § 2.

In Southern Ry. Co. v. United States, 222 U. S. 20, 26, it was held that the 1903 amendment had enlarged the scope of the original act so as to embrace all locomotives, cars, and similar vehicles used on any railway that is a highway of interstate commerce, whether the particular vehicles were at the time employed in interstate commerce or not.

In Pennell v. Phila. & Reading Ry., 231 U. S. 675, the question was whether the provision respecting automatic couplers was applicable to the coupling between the locomotive and the tender. This was answered in the negative, the court saying (p. 678): "Engine and tender are a single thing; separable, it may be, but never separated in their ordinary and essential use. The connection between them, that is, between the engine and tender, it was testified, was in the nature of a permanent coupling, and it was also testified that there was practically no opening between the engine and tender, and that attached to the engine was a draw-bar which fitted in the

yoke of the tender, and the pin was dropped down to connect draw-bar and yoke. The necessary deduction from this is that no dangerous position was assumed by an employé in coupling the engine and tender for the reason that the pin was dropped through the bar from the tank of the tender."

In each of these cases, the letter of the act was construed in the light of its spirit and purpose, as indicated by its title no less than by the enacting clauses. The same guiding principle should be adhered to in considering the question now presented. Conceding that it may be doubtful whether the act, in its original form, evidenced an intent on the part of Congress to standardize the height of draw-bars upon vehicles other than freight cars, and therefore assuming for argument's sake that the act was not in this respect applicable to locomotive engines, it seems to us that the amendment of 1903, manifestly enacted for the purpose of broadening the scope of the original act, must upon a fair construction be deemed to extend its provisions and requirements respecting the standard height of draw-bars, so as to make them applicable to locomotives, excepting such as are in terms exempted.

There was abundant reason for applying the standard to locomotives. The draw-bar-sometimes called the "draw-head"-carries at its outer end the device or mechanism for coupling the cars. The height of the draw-bar determines the height of the coupler, and has an intimate relation not only to the safety of the coupling operation but to the security of the coupling when made. See Car-Builders Dict. (1884), tit. "Draw-bar" and "Drawhead," and Figs. 395-643; Voss, Railway Construction (1892), pp. 16, 91, etc. The evidence in this case shows, without contradiction, that the gripping surface of the coupling knuckle on the freight car in question, measured vertically, was between seven and nine inches, and that