RAILWAY LEGISLATION 



resolutions; and appointed committees to urge railroad legisla- 

 tion upon Congress; but the Chicago meeting seems to have 

 been the last appearance of this organization. 1 



In Congress itself, but little interest was manifested in the 

 subject from 1874 to 1878, and the various bills and resolutions 

 failed to receive any attention. Finally, however, in the second 

 session of the Forty-fifth Congress (1877-78), a bill for the 

 regulation of interstate commerce was reported in the House by 

 Mr. Reagan of Texas 2 as chairman of the committee on commerce 

 and received consideration. This measure is extremely verbose 

 and difficult to interpret, but it seems to embody the following 

 provisions: (i) no railroad to discriminate between persons 

 engaged in interstate commerce, or to grant rebates; (2) no 

 railroad to charge higher rates for a short than for a longer haul 

 on the same line; (3) no railroad to charge higher rates for 

 interstate traffic than it charged for traffic wholly within a state; 

 (4) schedules of rates to be publicly posted and variations 

 therefrom prohibited. 3 A comparison of the provisions of this 

 bill with those of the McCrary bill of 1874 indicates a change 

 which had taken place in the transportation problem. In the 

 early part of the decade the principal object of agitation and 

 of the proposed laws such as the McCrary bill was " cheap 

 transportation," especially for through traffic from the interior 

 to the seaboard. By the time the Reagan bill made its 

 appearance, the emphasis was laid upon the elimination of 

 unjust discriminations between persons and places. This was 

 a result of great reductions in through freights during the inter- 

 val; and the force of competition, which had helped to bring 

 about this reduction, was also responsible in large part for the 

 increased discriminations. 4 



1 Prairie Farmer, xlv. 363 (November 14, 1874); American Annual Cyclopedia, 

 1874, p. 799, 1875, p. 672. 



2 Reagan was a member of the order of Patrons of Husbandry. He later served 

 on the railroad commission of Texas. See Biographical Congressional Directory, 

 761. 



3 The bill is printed in full in Congressional Record, 3412. 



4 See James, The Agitation for Federal Regulation, 37-39; Johnson, American 

 Railway Transportation, 368. 



