CONGRESS. (INTEESTATE COMMERCE.) 



173 



its spirit and purpose you sustain the law by 

 defeating its spirit and purpose and adhering 

 to the letter who believes this, Mr. Presi- 

 dent? No intelligent person. Yet the Senate 

 Committee on the Judiciary so declare, and 

 this bill so declares. 



"Take this bill, which is the re-establish- 

 ment of the Inquisition of old, which is relig- 

 ious persecution, which is a law respecting 

 the establishment of religion, because these 

 men have a form of belief and a practice which 

 we disapprove. It is as much the establish- 

 ment of a particular religion by law as if it de- 

 clared it in particular terms." 



Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, objected to the 

 measure on one specific point, and Senators 

 Blair, of New Hampshire, and Dolph, of Ore- 

 gon, concurred in his objection : 



" I have given sometimes somewhat reluc- 

 tantly my assent to the policy of this bill and 

 to most of its provisions ; but I regard, for 

 reasons which I have already stated, the aboli- 

 tion of the right of suffrage by women as not 

 merely unjustifiable but as tyrannical. I think 

 the Senators who have had the conduct of this 

 bill have taken an advantage which they had 

 no right to take to strike out something they 

 did not like, although twenty-four Senators in 

 this body have recently recorded their opinion 

 in its favor, by the use of the power which the 

 public disapprobation of polygamy put into 

 their hands for an entirely different purpose. 

 I voted against the bill for that reason before, 

 and I shall vote against this conference report, 

 which is in fact a bill not merely dealing with 

 the matters in dispute, but the original bill in 

 a new draught, for the same reason. 



"The other provisions of tlfe bill, as being 

 the policy which the best judgment of the 

 Senate has been able to agree on for the extir- 

 pation of this foul blot on our civilization, I 

 expect to support when I have an opportunity 

 to deal with them separately, although some 

 of them march clear up to the boundary-line 

 which divides reasonable police legislation 

 aimed at crime and evil from legislation which 

 interferes with the great principles and safe- 

 guards of personal liberty. I am not prepared 

 to go quite so far in that line." 



The Senate then adopted the measure as rec- 

 ommended by the conference committee, by the 

 following vote : 



YEAS Allison, Bowen, Cameron, Chenev, Cock- 

 rell, Colquitt, Conger, Cullom, Doh>h, Edmunds, 

 Evarts, Farwell, Frye. George, Hale, Harrison, Haw- 

 ley, Ingalls, Jones or Arkansas, Jones of Nevada, 

 McMillan, McPherson, Mahone, Manderson. Maxey, 

 Miller, Mitchell of Oregon, Monran, Morrill, Platt, 

 Pugh, Sabin, Sawyer, Spooner, Walthall, Williams, 

 Wilson of Iowa 37. 



NAYS Blackburn, Brown, Butler, Call, Coke. Gib- 

 son, Hampton, Harris, Hoar, Kenna, Ransom, Vance, 

 Whitthorne 13. 



ABSENT Aldrieh t Beck, Berry, Blair, Camden, 



Stanford, Toller, "Tan Wyck, Vest, Voorhees, Wilson 

 of Mary land 26. 



The measure became a law without the ap- 

 proval of the President. 



Interstate Commerce. This session of Congress 

 crowned years of apparently fruitless discus- 

 sion by passing a measure regulating interstate 

 commerce. May 12, 1886, by a vote of 46 yeas 

 to 4 nays, the Senate passed a moderate bill 

 for this purpose, and July 30, the House, by a 

 vote of 130 yeas to 104 nays substituted for it 

 the Reagan bill, and passed that measure by a 

 vote of 190 yeas to 40 nays. July 31 the Sen- 

 ate non-concurred in the House amendment, 

 and a conference committee was appointed. 

 The report of the committee was made in the 

 Senate, December 15, the following bill being 

 recommended as a substitute for those passed 

 by either House: 



Be it enacted, etc. , 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 usecf, under a common control ? man- 

 agement, 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 transporta- 

 tion in like manner of property shipped from any place 

 in the United States to a foreign country and carried 

 from such place to a port of transshipment, or shipped 

 from a foreign country to any place in the United States 

 and carried to such place from a port of entry either iii 

 the United States or an adjacent foreign country : Pro- 

 vided, however, That the provisions of this act shall 

 not apply to the transportation of passengers or prop- 

 erty, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or hand- 

 ling 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 in- 

 clude all bridges and ferries used or operated in con- 

 nection with any railroad, and also all the road in 

 use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether 

 owned or operated under a contract, agreement, OP 

 lease ; and the term " transportation " shall include 

 all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage. 



All charges made for any service rendered or to bo 

 rendered in the transportation of passengers or prop- 

 erty as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, or for 

 the receiving, delivery, storage, or handling of such 

 property, shall be reasonable and just, and every un- 

 just, unreasonable charge for such service is prohib- 

 ited 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 transporta- 

 tion of passengers or property, subject to the provis- 

 ions of this act, than it charges, demands, collects, 

 or receives from any other person or persons for doing 

 for him or them a like and contemporaneous service 

 in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under 

 substantially similar circumstances and conditions, 

 such common carrier shall be deemed guilty of unjust 

 discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and de- 

 clared to be unlawful. 



SEC. 3. That it shall be unlawful for any common 

 carrier subject to the provisions of this act to make or 

 give any undue or unreasonable preference or advan- 

 tage to any particular person, company, firm, corpora- 

 tion, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, 



