delivered the opinion of the court.
The United States brought this suit against the Railroad Company to recover penalties for fifteen alleged violations of the Safety Appliance Act. The violations consisted in hauling in interstate commerce on October 23,1911, twelve cars which were not provided with hand-holds or grab-irons at the ends, as required by the act, and three cars which were not equipped with automatic couplers. The answer admitted that at the time named all fifteen cars had been used in interstate commerce and that three of them were not equipped with automatic couplers, but denied that the other twelve were not provided with hand-holds or grab-irons as required by the act and denied that it had in any respect violated the act because all fifteen cars were used by the company upon its fine of street railway and were therefore expressly excepted from the operation of the act. A verdict and judgment against *346 the company on all fifteen charges was affirmed by the court below.
We briefly state the material facts. The Railroad Company operated a street railway system in Spokane, Washington, and several interurban electric lines, one of which extended from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a distance of about forty miles. Over this line passenger trains composed of two or more cars were operated starting at a station near the center of Spokane and running for a mile and a quarter on the street railway tracks to the.company’s yards near the city limits and thence over its private right of way to Coeur d’Alene. The road was standard gauge, with rails of standard weight and the passenger trains were made up according to standard railroad rules with markers to designate the trains and were, run on schedules and by train orders. Passengers traveled on tickets entitling them to ride to and from designated stations at which regular stops were made and express matter and baggage were carried on the passenger trains. The street-car ^business was entirely separaté from that done by the interurban line, the employees of the one having nothing whatever to do with the other, and although stops were made by interurban trains within the city limits and while on the street railway tracks, they were made solely for the purpose of taking on and letting off passengers to or from stations outside the city. In addition to its passenger trains the interurban line also operated freight trains which, however, started from the company’s yards and fan directly to Coeur d’Alene and did not therefore enter upon the street railway tracks.
The fifteen cars here in question Were passenger cars and on the day named were used in passenger trains which were run from the station in Spokane'to the city limits- and thence over the company’s right of way to Coeur d’Alene. Twelve of them (those which it was charged were not equipped at the ends with grab-irons.or hand *347 holds) were cars regularly used on the interurban lines and wére rounded at the ends and equipped with radial couplers to enable the trains to make sharp turns. As the swinging of these couplers from one side to the other across the ends of the cars would break off grab-irons of the type ordinarily used on the ends of cars they were not used. It was claimed, however, that the requirements of the Safety Appliance Act with respect to hand-holds or grab-irons were in substance complied with by a different, and what was asserted to be an equivalent appliance, that is, openings in the top of the buffer or sill extending across the ends of the cars just above the couplers. To support this claim the company offered testimony of experienced railroad men to the effect “that the handholds or grab-irons in the buffers or. sills of such ears were -sufficient to protect-men who might be required to go between the cars in coupling or otherwise handling them, that they were sufficient to accomplish purposes intended to be accomplished by the provisions of the Safety. Appliance Act requiring hand-holds or grab-irons to be placed upon the ends of cars used in interstate commerce, and that they were better. than those commonly used upon cars engaged in interstate commerce.” The United States objected to the introduction of the testimony and it was excluded on the ground “that it was not a question for expert testimony, but was a matter of common knowledge.” During the trial, (at whose request it does not appear) the jury were taken to inspect the openings in some of the cars.
The other three cars were large street cars which were regularly used only on the street railway tracks, but which because of unusually heavy traffic on the day named were coupled together with link and pin couplers and operated as a train to'Cceur d’Alene.
The assignments of error present two questions which we consider separately.
*348 1. It is urged that error was committed in construing the Safety Appliance Act since, when correctly interpreted, the fifteen cars in question were expressly excepted from its requirements. To appreciate the contentions based upon this proposition it is necessary to recur to the text of the original act and the amendments thereto. By the act of March 2,1893, (c. 196, 27 Stat. 531) it was made unlawful for any common carrier “to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate trafile not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact,” (§2) or,“to use any car in interstate commerce that is not provided with secure grab irons or hand holds in the ends and sides of each car for greater security to men in coupling and uncoupling cars,” (§ 4), with the proviso (§ 6) that the prohibitions of the act should not apply to “trains composed of four-wheel cars or to.locomotives used in hauling such trains.” By the act of April 1, 1896 (c. 87, 29 Stat. 85), the proviso of § 6 was amended as follows: “That nothing in this act contained shall apply to trains of four-wheel cars or to trains composed of eight-wheel standard logging cars . . . or to locomotives used in hauling such trains when such cars or locomotives are exclusively used for the transportation of logs.” By the amendment of March 2, 1903 (c. 976, 32 Stat. 943) the provisions of the act relating to automatic couplers, grab-irons, etc., were extended and made applicable 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,” and to the exceptions from the requirements of the original act and the Amendment of 1896 were added “trains, cars, and locomotives . . . which are used upon street railways.”
The contention is that as the trains in which the fifteen cars were .hauled were operated over the street railway
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tracks'from the station in Spokane to the yards of the company, they were “used upon street railways” and were hence expressly exempted from the requirements of the act by the. amendment of 1903. This, it is said, results from the unambiguous text of the exception contained in that amendment and is from a two-fold point of view made additionally certain by the context of the act which we have quoted. The argument is that the word “used” in the amendment of 1903 excepting cars, etc., “used upon street railways” must be construed as having the' same significance as the same word in the amendment making the act applicable to all cars, etc., “used on any railroad engaged in interstate commerce.” From this premise it is insisted that as the fatter provision has been construed ,as enlarging the scope of the act by causing it to embrace all cars used on interstate commerce railroads although at the particular time the cars are employed in intrastate commerce
(Southern Railway v. United States,
The suggestion is made in argument that in any event the railroad company was not liable for the penalties because of the difficulty of equipping the twelve cars with grab-irons which would not interfere with the lateral movement of the radial couplers and beeause the other three cars were so constructed that they could not be *351 provided with automatic couplers and were used only-on the one day because of unusually heavy .traffic. But this merely asserts that the statute may be violated with impunity if only the railroad finds its provisions onerous or deems it expedient to do so.
2. It is contended that error was committed in rejecting the testimony of experts offered by the Railroad Company as to the protection afforded to employés by the openings in the buffers at the ends of the twelve cars. Without stopping to point out the inappositeness of the many authorities cited in support of the contention, we think the court was clearly right in holding that the question was not one for experts and that the jury after hearing the testShony and inspecting the openings were competent to determine the issue, particularly in view of the full and clear instruction given on the subject concerning which no complaint is made.
Affirmed.