Since the states had no control over interstate commerce, it was plainly the duty of the federal government to enact a comprehensive law for the regulation of all commerce that crossed state boundary lines. Bills were introduced and discussed in both houses of Congress. Wide differences of opinion appeared, especially as to the best method of enforcing the regulation embodied in the proposed law. The final result was the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.

Among the provisions embodied in this act, six deserve mention at this point. (1) Discriminations, such as we have discussed in an earlier section of this chapter, were prohibited, under penalty of fine and imprisonment. (2) The act provided that interstate railroad rates should be just and reasonable. (3) To render provisions 1 and 2 effective, railroads were required to make their rates public, and not to change them without due notice. (4) Railroads were prohibited from charging more for a short than for a long haul unless authorized to do so by the proper authorities. (5) Pooling was declared to be illegal. (6) The act provided also for an Interstate Commerce Commission, appointed by the president of the United States, which should direct the enforcement of the law.

During the earlier years of the act the commission found it difficult to enforce the law. The first difficulty lay in the personnel of the commission itself, which, while it contained able men, served too often as a convenient place for retired members of Congress to spend their declining days. Second, the law itself, as an examination of its provisions shows, was largely

A Portion of the Interstate Commerce Act.

Chap. 104. - An act to regulate commerce. Feb. 4, 1887.

Tie it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this act shall apply to any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used, under a common control, management, or arrangement, for a continuous carriage or shipment, from one State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and also to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from anyplace in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transshipment, or shipped from a foreign couutry to any place in the Uuited States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or an adjacent foreign country: Provided, however, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of property, wholly within one State, and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid.

The term "railroad" as used in this act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term "transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage.

All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property, shall be reasonable and just; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful.

Sec. 2. That if any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for any service rendered, or to be rendered, in the transportation of passengers or property, subject to the provisions of this act, than it charges, demands, collects, or receives

Interstate commerce regulations.

Application.

Proviso.

Not applicable to traffic wholly within one State.

"Railroad." "Transporta-tion."

Definition of.

Charges to be reasonable.

Special rates, re-bates, etc., prohib ited.

negative in character; that is, it stated what the railroads might not do, rather than what they should do. Finally, since the regulations of the commission were subject to judicial review, railroad lawyers made special efforts to have its decisions reversed in the United States Courts, in order to create in the minds of the people the feeling that the commission was weak and inefficient.