210 



CONGRESS. (ISTTEB-STATE COMMERCE.) 



And. as many causes of action as may accrue within 

 the year may be joined in the same suit or com- 

 plaint. 



SEG. 8. That any director or officer of any corpora- 

 tion or company acting or engaged as aforesaid, or 

 any receiver or trustee, lessee, or person acting or en- 

 gaged as aforesaid, or any agent of any such corpora- 

 tion or company, receiver, trustee, or person afore- 

 said, or of -one of them alone, or with any other 

 corporation, company, person or party, who shall 

 willfully do, or cause or willingly Buffer or permit to 

 be done, any act, matter, or thing in this act prohib- 

 ited or forbidden, or who shall aid or abet therein, 

 or shall willfully omit or fail to do any act, matter, or 

 thing in this act required to be done, or <;ause or will- 

 ingly suffer or permit any act, matter, or thing so 

 directed or required by this act to be done not to be 

 so done, or shall aid or abet any such omission or fail- 

 ure, or shall be guilty of any infraction of this act, or 

 aid or abet therein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, 

 and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less 

 than $1,000. 



SEC. 9. That nothing in this act^ shall apply to the 

 carriage, receiving, storage, handling, or forwarding 

 of property wholly within one State, and not shipped 

 from or destined to some foreign country or other 

 State or Territory ; nor shall it apply to property car- 

 ried for the United States at lower rates of freight and 

 charges than for the general public, or to the transpor- 

 tation of articles free or at reduced rates of freight 

 for charitable purposes, or to or from public fairs and 

 expositions for exhibition. 



SEC. 10. That the words " person or persons" as 

 used in this act, except where otherwise provided, 

 shall be construed and held to mean person or per- 

 sons, officer or officers, corporation or corporations, 

 company or companies, receiver or receivers, trustee 

 or trustees, lessee or lessees, agent or agents, or other 

 person or persons acting or engaged in any of the 

 matters and things mentioned in this act. 



Concerning the proposition to appoint a com- 

 mission, Mr. Reagan said : 



"If it is the judgment of the House that we 

 should have a commission on this subject, I 

 shall, of course, bow to the decision of the 

 House. But I doubt the expediency of pro- 

 viding for such a commission, and will state 

 why. If we provide for the appointment of a 

 railroad commission either by the President or 

 any other authority (and if provided for it 

 would seem most natural that the members 

 should be appointed by the President), how- 

 ever honest and patriotic his intentions may 

 be in making such appointments, we must re- 

 member that the railroad corporations, few in 

 number as to the heads that control them, can 

 easily combine their influence and bring to 

 hear by indirection, if they dare not do it di- 

 rectly, influences which will be likely to con- 

 trol in the appointment of commissioners. 



"If we get commissioners appointed in the 

 interest of these corporations, we can hardly 

 expect Cither recommendations or direct action 

 that will materially benefit the people. 



4 * It has been said that it was difficult even 

 to get the representatives of the people to act 

 on this great question. We know the power of 

 these corporations (with their experts and other 

 officers filling the committee-rooms and corri- 

 dors, and often placing themselves upon the floor 

 of this house with their attorneys, the ablest in 

 the United States, all of them paid out of the 

 people's money by levying a little more tribute 



upon the people) to secure or prevent legisla- 

 tion. If Congress has found now for nine 

 years the impossibility of legislating upon this 

 great question, what is to be the fate of the 

 people if their interests are left in the hands of 

 three men upon whom all these influences can 

 be concentrated? I do not deny that it may 

 be possible to secure men who will be faithful 

 to the great trust committed to them ; but to 

 undertake to perform the duties of such a com- 

 mission would expose any men to the severest 

 trials that can be imposed upon them. 



" My friend from Iowa asks me if I can point 

 out the difference in point of difficulty between 

 getting honest commissioners and the difficulty 

 of getting honest judges. I do not know that 

 1 can point out the difference in such a way as 

 will be satisfactory to him. But judges are 

 appointed with reference to the general legal 

 powers which they are to exercise, while these 

 commissioners would be appointed with refer- 

 ence to the specific duties provided for in this 

 act relating to railroads. Judges have many 

 motives in connection with subjects of juris- 

 diction other than railroads to preserve their 

 integrity. I have said I do not doubt that it 

 is possible to get men who will act fairly in 

 this capacity. But, in iny judgment, when we 

 look at what has occurred in the majority of 

 the States that have appointed commissioners, 

 when we remember that State Legislatures have 

 been suborned, that courts of justice have been 

 corrupted, that even Governors of States have 

 teen improperly influenced in their action by 

 the power of these corporations, we should 

 rather trust the rights of the people in the 

 hands of the courts of the country than com- 

 mit them to three particular individuals, whose 

 jurisdiction at most can only be partial. 



" But I propose now, Mr. Speaker, to an- 

 tagonize this idea of a commission by provid- 

 ing that certain things shall not be done, and 

 that the doing of them shall be a violation of 

 the law, and that certain things shall be done, 

 and the non-doing of these things shall be a 

 violation of law. I propose to give a civil 

 remedy to the party injured, in the State or 

 Federal court where these parties or their offi- 

 cers can be found, in civil damages for the 

 wrong done. I propose to give a criminal 

 remedy in the courts of the United States for 

 the same wrongs where the penalty on con- 

 viction shall not be less than $1,000." 



Mr. Long, of Massachusetts, said of the gen- 

 eral scope of the committee's bill : 



u Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Commerce 

 agree that legislation is demanded and is de- 

 sirable on the subject of interstate railroad 

 transportation. They differ only as to the 

 method of procedure. In discussing the bill 

 which they have reported, it is as important 

 not to get up steam against evils, which it is 

 not our province to remedy, as to consider how 

 most effectually to cure those which we ought to 

 reach. There is no subject of easier declama- 

 tion, or at which the impassioned orator can 



