Three motor common carriers filed a complaint with the Interstate Commerce Commission under § 204(c) of Part II of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 Stat. 547, as amended, 49 U.S.C. § 304(c), 49 U.S.C.A. § 304(c), alleging that Frozen Food Express, a common carrier by motor vehicle, was and had been transporting fresh and frozen meats and fresh and frozen dressed poultry in interstate commerce without a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Commission which covers those commodities. The complaint prayed for a cease and desist order. Frozen Food Express admitted that it was and had been so transporting the named commodities but asserted in defense that those operations were within the exemption of § 203(b)(6).
The Commission found that Frozen Food Express had been performing unauthorized operations and that fresh and frozen meats and fresh and frozen dressed poultry were not within the exemption of § 203(b)(6). 62 M.C.C. 646. Accordingly it ordered Frozen Food Express to cease and desist from engaging in these operations. Frozen Food Express brought suit before a three-judge District Court, 28 U.S.C. § 2325, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2325, to set the Commission's order aside, 28 U.S.C. § 1336, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1336; 49 Stat. 550, as amended, 49 U.S.C. § 305(g), 49 U.S.C.A. § 305(g); 60 Stat. 243, 5 U.S.C. § 1009, 5 U.S.C.A. § 1009. The answer of the United States and the complaint in intervention filed by the Secretary of Agriculture supported the position of Frozen Food Express. The original complainants before the Commission and other interested carriers and carrier associations intervened in support of the Commission. The District Court sustained the Commission's conclusion that fresh and frozen meats are nonexempt commodities. No appeal was taken from that holding. The District Court held that fresh and frozen dressed poultry are exempt commodities under § 203(b)(6) and restrained the Commission from enforcing its cease and desist order as respects those products. 128 F.Supp. 374. The cases are here by appeal. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1253, 2101(b), 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1253, 2101(b).
We agree with the District Court that the Commission's ruling does not square with the statute. The exemption of motor vehicles carrying 'agricultural (including horticultural) commodities (not including manufactured products thereof)' was designed to preserve for the farmers the advantage of low-cost motor transportation. See especially 79 Cong.Rec. 12217. The victory in the Congress for the exemption was recognition that the price which the farmer obtains for his products is greatly affected by the cost of transporting them to the consuming market in their raw state or after they have become marketable by incidental processing.
The history of the words 'agricultural * * * commodities (not including manufactured products thereof)' contained in § 203(b)(6) supports that conclusion. The bill as it came to the floor of the House from the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (79 Cong.Rec. 12204) exempted 'motor vehicles used exclusively in carrying livestock or unprocessed agricultural products.' Id., 12220. Mr. Pettengill for the Committee offered an amendment which substituted for the words 'unprocessed agricultural products' the phrase 'agricultural commodities not including manufactured products thereof.' That amendment was agreed to after the following colloquy:
'Mr. Pettengill. Mr. Chairman, we have heard a good deal of discussion this afternoon as to what is a processed agricultural product, whether that would include pasteurized milk or ginned cotton. It was not the intent of the committee that it should include those products. Therefore, to meet the views of many Members we thought we would strike out the word 'unprocessed' and make it apply only to manufactured products.
'Mr. Whittington. In other words, under the amendment to the committee amendment, cotton in bales and cottonseed transported from the ginneries to the market or to a public warehouse would be exempt, whereas they might not be exempt if the language remained, because ginning is sometimes synonymous with processing.