Since 1943 a great deal has been said and written concerning the function of rate bureaus and conferences in the making of rates to be charged for common carrier transportation service. Defenders of the rate bureaus have frequently maintained that the present system of rate conferences must be preserved or chaos and confusion will reign in the making of transportation rates. These claims are made in response to charges set forth in suits by the Federal Government and the State of Georgia that railroad rate bureaus were being operated in contravention of the Sherman Act.' In the Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, and Eightieth Congresses bills were introduced to exempt interstate carriers regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission from the application of the antitrust laws. 2 On occasion the Department of Justice has been vigorously criticized for bringing a suit to enforce the antitrust laws in an area in which it is urged that the Interstate Commerce Commission should have exclusive jurisdiction. The assertion is made-hat interference with the present method of operation of rate bureaus and conferences would be disastrous because the rate-bureau procedure is absolutely necessary and cannot be changed if the carriers are to comply with the Interstate Commerce
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