. Review of reviews and world's work. slative actnow needed as regards the regulation of corporations isthis act to confer on the Interstate Commerce Commis-sion the power to revise rates and regulations, the re-vised rate to at once go into effect and to staj in effect,unless and until the court of review reverses it. Xo other specific recommendation in Mr. Roose-velts message has attracted so much atten-tion as this one. When the message appeared,certain heads of railway corporations endeavored,through their powerful hold upon members ofboth houses of Congress and through their re-lations wi
. Review of reviews and world's work. slative actnow needed as regards the regulation of corporations isthis act to confer on the Interstate Commerce Commis-sion the power to revise rates and regulations, the re-vised rate to at once go into effect and to staj in effect,unless and until the court of review reverses it. Xo other specific recommendation in Mr. Roose-velts message has attracted so much atten-tion as this one. When the message appeared,certain heads of railway corporations endeavored,through their powerful hold upon members ofboth houses of Congress and through their re-lations with important newspapers, to set a coun-ter-tide of public opinion in motion against thispioposal. Their endeavor has, however, metwith a very bad reception. There is an over-whelming public opinion in favor of doingpromptly what the President advises. It waslong ago established in decisions of the UnitedStates Supreme Court, that the regulation ofrailway rates is a public function, and that itmay be exercised by the State governments. where traffic within their boundaries is con-cerned, and by the federal government where thecommerce involved is of an interstate character. o, ,,.t For a number of years after its cre- Shall the • i i /, ^ Commission ation, tlie interstate Commerce Com-Have Power -mission actually exercised the rate-making power that President Roosevelt nowasks Congress to confer ; but a Supreme Courtdecision in 1897 so interpreted the existing lawas to limit the right of the commission to thedenunciation of a rate which they found to beunjust. In other words, the commission couldunmake rates, but it could not nuike them. Ex-perience has shown that the shipper who ischaiged an excessive rate or discriminatedagainst cannot easily enough secure justice. Therailroads have endeavored to keep before thepublic the view that theirs was private propertyin the ordinary sense, and that for the public toexercise the rate-making power would be as un-warrantable as it would
Size: 1472px × 1698px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1890
