enterprise would be a
practical nullity.[205] Such an order may be issued by the Postmaster
General "upon evidence satisfactory to him,"[206] but if issued under a
"mistake of law" as to what facts may properly be deemed to constitute
fraud, it will be enjoined by the courts.[207] A hearing upon revocation
of second-class mailing privileges by an assistant Postmaster General
upon notice, at which relator was heard and evidence received was due
process.[208]

Congressional Regulation of Public Utilities

Inasmuch as Congress, in giving federal agencies jurisdiction over
various public utilities, usually has prescribed standards substantially
identical with those by which the Supreme Court has tested the validity
of State action, the review of their orders seldom has turned on
constitutional issues. In two cases, however, maximum rates for
stockyard companies prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture were
sustained only after detailed consideration of numerous items excluded
from the rate base or from operating expenses, apparently on the
assumption that error with respect to any such item would render the
rates confiscatory and void.[209] A few years later, in Federal Power
Commission _v._ Hope Natural Gas Co.,[210] the Court adopted an entirely
different approach. It took the position that the validity of the
Commission's order depended upon whether the impact or total effect of
the order is just and reasonable, rather than upon the method of
computing the rate base. Rates which enable a company to operate
successfully, to maintain its financial integrity, to attract capital,
and to compensate its investors for the risks assumed cannot be
condemned as unjust and unreasonable even though they might produce only
a meager return in a rate base computed by the "present fair value"
method.[211]

Orders prescribing the form and contents of accounts kept by public
utility companies,[212] and statutes requiring a private carrier to
furnish information for valuing its property to the Interstate Commerce
Commission[213] have been sustained against the objection that they were
arbitrary and invalid. An order of the Secretary of Commerce directed to
a single common carrier by water requiring it to file a summary of its
books and records pertaining to its rates was held not to violate the
Fifth Amendment.[214]

Congressional Regulation of Railroads

Legislation or administrative orders pertaining to railroads have been