Creation
The ICC was established by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 (Pub.L. 49-104, 24 Stat. 379, enacted February 4, 1887), which was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. The creation of the commission was the result of widespread and longstanding anti-railroad agitation. Western farmers, specifically those of the Grange Movement, were the dominant force behind the unrest, but Westerners generally — especially those in rural areas — believed that the railroads possessed economic power that they systematically abused. A central issue was rate discrimination between similarly situated customers and communities.
The Act applied to all railroads engaged in interstate commerce, even if they were located entirely within a single state, and it also applied to water carriers — riverboats, barges, ferries — owned or controlled by railroads. The Act states that rates charged by the railroads had to be "just and reasonable," but it did not set standards for reasonableness. Railroads were forbidden to give preference, advantage, special rates, or rebates to any person, company, location, city or type of traffic; there had been alleged attempts by railroads to obtain influence over city and state governments and a widespread practice of granting free transportation in the form of yearly passes to opinion leaders (elected officials, newspaper editors, ministers, et al. Railroads were not allowed to charge more for a short haul than a long haul under the same circumstances when the short haul was a segment of a longer haul (e.g., a New York-Baltimore trip should not cost more than a New York-Washington, D.C. trip). The act prohibited pooling, which, in a railroads case, was the sharing of revenue or freight. Railroads were required to publish rates and give advance notice of change.
Read more about this topic: Interstate Commerce Commission
Famous quotes containing the word creation:
“The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orbit hems it in, the inexhaustible wealth of the total visible creation is outweighed by its riches!”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)
“Since we are assured that the all-wise Creator has observed the most exact proportions of number, weight and measure in the make of all things, the most likely way therefore to get any insight into the nature of those parts of the Creation which come within our observation must in all reason be to number, weigh and measure.”
—Stephen Hales (1677–1761)
“As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into Silence. Silence is audible to all men, at all times, and in all places. She is when we hear inwardly, sound when we hear outwardly. Creation has not displaced her, but is her visible framework and foil. All sounds are her servants, and purveyors, proclaiming not only that their mistress is, but is a rare mistress, and earnestly to be sought after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)