The railroad lawyers did in fact create the impression that the commission was weak, also, to their own grief, that the law needed to be amended so as to give it more authority. Accordingly, in 1891 the commission was empowered to bring suit in the name of the United States against offending railroads. Later, the Elkins Amendment (1903) and the Mann-Elkins Amendment (1910) increased the number of commissioners and changed the annual salary from $7500 to $10,000; gave the commission control over the bookkeeping methods of the roads; prohibited any railroad from transporting products, lumber excepted, in which it is interested as a producer; and finally, it gave the commission power to say just what rates are reasonable. The Elkins-Mann Act created a commerce court, which was abolished a few years later, to pass on appeals from the commission that had formerly been carried to the Supreme Court of the United States.