CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



175 



porations, so as to prevent the concealmant of 

 facts necessary to the ends of justice, and to 

 prevent evasions of law which would defeat 

 the purposes of the bill. 



" These, briefly stated, are the provisions of 

 the bill which I propose to ask the House to 

 adopt as a substitute for the original bill, that 

 substitute being now in fact the bill of the ma- 

 jority." 



Mr. Singleton, of Illinois : " I would like to 

 get the gentleman's opinion upon the question 

 of the power of the States to furnish the same 

 remedies proposed by this bill." 



Mr. Reagan : " As to the power of the State, 

 it is as full and ample as the power of the Gen- 

 eral Government, though limited to commerce 

 wholly within the State. The State can adopt 

 the same provisions with reference to State 

 commerce that we adopt with reference to in- 

 terstate commerce." 



Mr. Singleton : " Does not this bill apply to 

 internal commerce ? " 



Mr. Reagan : " We can not control that ; we 

 have not the power to control commerce wholly 

 within a State." 



Mr. Singleton : "All the commerce within 

 a State must be internal commerce, of course." 



Mr. Reagan: "I will tell my friend how we 

 meet that difficulty. Of course when goods 

 are shipped in a State the commerce originates 

 in the State; but the marks upon the goods 

 indicate whether they are destined to stop 

 within that State or go to another. These 

 marks are put upon the goods, not by the rail- 

 road company but by the shipper ; and if the 

 shipper in Illinois marks his freight for New 

 York or any other State than Illinois, it is in- 

 terstate commerce ; and the law takes hold of 

 it and protects it from the initial point to the 

 time the freight is landed at its destination." 



Mr. Singleton : " What I wished to ask was, 

 whether that commerce would be subject to 

 inspection at the terminal point? Whether 

 the commodity the gentleman treats as com- 

 merce in tramitu would be subject to inspec- 

 tion or not? Is that your understanding? " 



Mr. Reagan : " I am not sure that I under- 

 stand the gentleman's question. There is noth - 

 ing in the bill in reference to that, however." 



Mr. Singleton : " This is a very important 

 inquiry, because our courts have held that it is 

 not even an article of commerce until after it 

 has been inspected, much less commerce itself." 



Mr. Reagan : u Very well. However that 

 may be, when a man ships five tons of wheat 

 from Chicago to New York I submit that it is 

 commerce, and it does not take an inspector 

 to make it wheat." 



Mr. Rice, of Massachusetts : "I wish to ask 

 the gentleman from Texas whether he believes 

 that Congress has power to oblige the New 

 York Central Railroad in any way to modify 

 its charges on freight received by it at Buffalo, 

 either from railroads coming into Buffalo or 

 by water-carriage over the lakes, that freight 

 to be carried within the State of New York by 



the New York Central Railroad, a corporation 

 of the State of New York, and not existing out- 

 side of the State of NewYork." 



Mr. Reagan : " I will answer the gentle- 

 man from Massachusetts as I have already an- 

 swered the gentleman from Illinois. Whether 

 the commerce is interstate or State commerce 

 depends upon the fact as to whether it is 

 shipped from one State and destined to an- 

 other or to a foreign country, or shipped from 

 a foreign country for one of the States. If the 

 commerce is shipped, the bill specially provides 

 that from the point of shipment in the State 

 where it starts to the point of its destination it 

 is interstate commerce in the sense of the law, 

 whether it goes over one or many railroads. 

 It would be undoubtedly as much interstate 

 commerce passing part of the way over water 

 as if it passed all the way over land. The ques- 

 tion of water or land transportation has noth- 

 ing whatever to do with the character of the 

 commerce, but simply its origin and destination. 

 Its origin and destination fix the fact." 



Mr. Singleton : u I would like to ask the gen- 

 tleman from Texas myself, further, if a stream 

 should have its source in one State, and thread 

 its way through the mountains and valleys for 

 one half its length before it became navigable 

 and subject to the power of Congress, would 

 it be an interstate stream? " 



Mr. Reagan: "That is a question that has 

 already been decided by the courts of the coun- 

 try. The Supreme Court has settled that ques- 

 tion, and it is even stronger than the question 

 of my friend from Illinois. They have de- 

 clared, and the decision has been repeated, 

 that if a commerce originates upon a stream 

 running entirely within a State which ends by 

 emptying into another stream or bay, gulf or 

 sea, and thereby communicates by water with 

 other States or foreign countries, the commerce 

 which passes on from State to State is inter- 

 state commerce. The Saginaw River in Michi- 

 gan, a small stream onlyforty miles long, is given 

 as an example. All its course is wholly within 

 the State of Michigan, but the commerce pass- 

 ing on it to other States is held to be interstate 

 commerce." 



Mr. Harris, of Virginia : " The gentleman 

 says the destination of the commerce shall de- 

 termine its character. Then let me suppose a 

 case that must inevitably arise. Goods or prod- 

 uce in Ohio destined for Wheeling, West Vir- 

 ginia, are shipped on a road that has no control 

 east of the west bank of the Ohio River, and 

 the company says, ' We will ship this to the 

 west bank of the Ohio River, but we have no 

 power to ship it beyond that ' ; would that be. 

 under the gentleman's bill, interstate commerce 

 if landed on the Ohio River, simply because 

 directed to Wheeling, on the east bank of the 

 Ohio River ? " 



Mr. Reagan : " I will read a clause of the bill 

 which answers the gentleman's question. We 

 knew the railroads would make the exact point 

 which my friend from Virginia has made, and 



