UNITED STATES. 



755 



may be necessary to control and limit by law within 

 proper constitutional and legitimate limits the rates 

 and charges of existing lines of transportation, to in- 

 crease where practicable the capacity of our present 

 water-ways, and to add such new avenues, both wa- 

 ter and rail, as our immensely increased internal 

 commerce demands, so that the producer may be 

 fairly rewarded for his honest toil, the consumer 

 hav cheap products, and our almost limitless sup- 

 plies find foreign markets at rates to compete with 

 the world. 



2. That the cheap transportation, both of persons 

 and property, being more conducive to the free 

 movement of the people, and the widest interchange 

 and consumption of the products of the different 

 pans of the Union, are essential to the welfare und 

 prosperity of the country. 



8. That the constant and frequent association of 

 the inhabitants of remote parts of the United States 

 is not only desirable, but necessary, for the main- 

 tenance of a homogeneous and harmonious popula- 

 tion within the vast area of our territory. 



4. That the best interests of the different parts of 

 the country also demand the freest possible inter- 

 change of the industrial products of the varied cli- 

 mates and industries of the United States, so that 

 breadstutfs, textile fibres, coal, lumber, iron, sugar, 

 and various other products, local in their production 

 but general in their consumption, may all reach tlie 

 consumer at the least practicable cost of transporta- 

 tion : and that an arbitrary and unnecessary tax lev- 

 ied by the transporter, over and above a fair remu- 

 neration for the investment, is a burden upon the 

 producer and the consumer, tnat it is the part of wise 

 statesmanship to remove. 



5. That certain leading railway corporations of the 

 country, although chartered to subserve the public 

 welfare, and endowed with the right of eminent do- 

 main solely for that reason, have proved themselves 

 practicallv monopolies, and become the tools of avari- 

 cious and unscrupulous capitalists, to be used to 

 plunder the public, enrich themselves, and impov- 

 erish the country through which they run. 



6. That many of the railway corporations of the 

 United States nave not only disregarded the public 

 convenience and prosperity, but have oppressed the 

 citizi -n, bribed our Legislatures, find defied our ex- 

 ecutives and judges, and stand to-day the most men- 

 acinif danger to American liberty and to republican 

 government. 



". That the present system of railway manage- 

 ment, having failed to meet the just expectations 

 and demands of a long-suffering people, must be 

 radically reformed and controlled by the strong hand 

 of Uw, both State and national, and railway corpora- 

 tions compelled to perform their proper functions as 

 the servants and not the masters of the people. 



8. That to thi end we inToke the aid of all fair- 

 minded men in all States of the Union in expelling 

 and excluding from the hulls of legislation, from our 

 executive offices, and from the bench, such railway- 

 officials, railway-attorneys, or other hirelings, as 

 prostitute public office to the base uses of private 

 gain. 



9. That leaving different sections and interests 

 that desire cheap transportation to work out the 

 problem in such manner as they may deem best, we 

 earnestly invnki: their careful consideration, their 

 energetic action, and their resolute will, in regulat- 

 ing and controlling the rates of transportation, and 

 giving remunerative wages to the producer, and 

 cheap products to the consumer, untaxcd by un- 

 earned charges for their carriage. 



The transportation of persons ami freight 

 li.ivinK passed almost entirely into the hands 

 of railroad corporations throughout the conn- 

 try, these movements were in effect a protest 

 againnt the rhnrpes of those corporations, and 

 a combination to effect their reduction. The 



usual considerations under which every branch 

 of industry is said to regulate itself, do not 

 seem to exist in this. There is an abundance 

 of freight to tax the utmost capacities of the 

 roads, and there is an absence of close compe- 

 tition interfering with them. These circum- 

 stances leave them practically " masters of the 

 situation." Appeals were therefore made to 

 State Legislature^, and to Congress, for the 

 passage of laws regulating transportation by 

 railroads. In answer to these applications, 

 Illinois appears to be the only State in which 

 there bus been any legislation. (See ILLINOIS 

 in this and the preceding volume.) 



The application to Congress immediately 

 brought up the question of the powers of that 

 body over the railroad corporations which 

 were authorized by the States. A report, em- 

 bracing this important constitutional question, 

 was made in the House of Representatives early 

 in January, 1874, by the Committee on Rail- 

 roads and Canals. A bill to regulate commerce 

 by railroads among the several States having 

 been previously referred to this committee, its 

 chairman, George W. McCrary, of Iowa, pre- 

 sented the report. The following is so much 

 of it as relates to the constitutional power of 

 Congress over railroads: 



Among the powers expressly conferred upon Con- 

 gress by section 8, Article I. of the Constitution, is 

 the power " to regulate commerce with foreign nations 

 and among the several States and with the Indian 

 tribes." In considering the question whether, under 

 this provision, Congress has power to pass the bill 

 reported, it will be unnecessary to inquire us to the 

 nature and extent of the power conferred by this pro- 

 vision upon Congress. It will not be denied that 

 this clause of the Constitution confers upon Congress 

 by express words power to legislate upon the general 

 subject of the regulation of commerce among the 

 several States. It is not a negative provision ; it 

 does not declare what power Congress shall not have ; 

 it is not merely prohibitory. It is affirmative. It de- 

 clares that Congress " shall have power," etc. In 

 order to show that this provision of the Constitution 

 inith' 

 neces 



which may be regulated by Congress includes com- 

 merce carried from State to State by railroads. 



2. That to regulate the charges for carrying freight 

 or passengers upon inter-State railroads, so as to 

 limit them to what is fair and reasonable and prevent 

 extortion, is a legitimate exercise of the power to 

 regulate such commerce. 



These propositions are abundantly supported both 

 by reason and authority. The term " commerce," as 

 employed in the Constitution, undoubtedly means 

 intercourse and exchange both of persons and prop- 

 erty between different States and communities. It 

 refers to the commerce itself, and not to the par- 

 ticular manner in which it is carried on. If it 

 could be held to apply to the latter, and if it could be 

 shown that the constitutional provision in question 

 was confined in its operation to commerce to be cur- 

 ried on by the same mode in existence when the 

 Constitution was adopted, all commerce among the 

 several States might escape regulation by abandon- 

 ing entirely the vehicles in use in 1787. In this way 

 the plain provision of the Constitution might be nulli- 

 fied if this construction of it could he sustained. 

 Upon this subject Judge Eedfiold, in his able and 

 exhaustive work on the law of railways, has this to 

 say : 



