o earn a
"fair" return on the capital invested.

In a few years the Granger spirit appeared in Congress. An investigation
revealed a long list of abuses committed by the railways against
shippers and travelers. The result was the interstate commerce act of
1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission, forbade
discriminations in rates, and prohibited other objectionable practices
on the part of railways. This measure was loosely enforced and the
abuses against which it was directed continued almost unabated. A demand
for stricter control grew louder and louder. Congress was forced to
heed. In 1903 it enacted the Elkins law, forbidding railways to charge
rates other than those published, and laid penalties upon the officers
and agents of companies, who granted secret favors to shippers, and upon
shippers who accepted them. Three years later a still more drastic step
was taken by the passage of the Hepburn act. The Interstate Commerce
Commission was authorized, upon complaint of some party aggrieved, and
after a public hearing, to determine whether just and reasonable rates
had been charged by the companies. In effect, the right to fix freight
and passenger rates was taken out of the hands of the owners of the
railways engaged in interstate commerce and vested in the hands of the
Interstate Commerce Commission. Thus private property to the value of
$20,000,000,000 or more was declared to be a matter of public concern
and subject to government regulation in the common interest.

=Municipal Utilities.=--Similar problems arose in connection with the
street railways, electric light plants, and other utilities in the great
cities. In the beginning the right to construct such undertakings was
freely, and often corruptly, granted to private companies by city
councils. Distressing abuses arose in connection with such practices.
Many grants or franchises were made perpetual, or perhaps for a term of
999 years. The rates charged and services rendered were left largely to
the will of the companies holding the franchises. Mergers or unions of
companies were common and the public was deluged with stocks and bonds
of doubtful value; bankruptcies were frequent. The connection between
the utility companies and the politicians was, to say the least, not
always in the public interest.

American ingenuity was quick to devise methods for eliminating such
evils. Three lines of progress were laid out by the reformers. One group
pro