was a failure. Such was the
judgment passed by Justice Harlan of the United States Supreme Court
when he remarked in one of his decisions that the commission was "a
useless body for all practical purposes"; and such, indeed, was the
judgment of the commission itself, for in its report of 1898 it declared
that the attempt at Federal regulation had failed. The chief reasons
for this failure, the commission said, were the continued existence of
secret rates and the fact that published tariffs were not observed. *
The managers of the great American railroad systems would not yet
admit that the fixing of railroad rates was the concern of any one but
themselves, and they still regarded railroad management as essentially
a private business. If they could obtain large shipments by granting
special rates, even though they had to do it by such underhanded ways
as granting rebates, they believed that they were entirely justified in
doing so. Thus rebates flourished almost as much as ever, passes were
still liberally bestowed, and pools were still formed, though they
sometimes took the shape of "gentlemen's agreements."

* But it should be added that the effectiveness of the commission
as an administrative and regulating body was diminished by decisions
of the courts, notably the decision of the Supreme Court in the maximum
rate case. See 160 U.S. 479.

In 1906, when President Roosevelt became intensely active in the
railroad problem, conditions were fairly demoralized. Attempts to
enforce the anti-pooling clause had led railroads to purchase competing
lines, and when the United States Supreme Court pronounced this illegal,
the situation became chaotic. The evils of overcapitalization also
became an issue of the times. The Interstate Commerce Commission had
become almost moribund, and there was a general sentiment that the
trouble arose from the fact that the commission had no power to fix
rates and that the solution of the railroad problem would come only when
such power was vested in it. * The Interstate Commerce Act which became
a law on June 29, 1906, was the outcome of one of the greatest
battles of President Roosevelt's political life. The act increased the
membership of the commission from five to seven members, placed under
its jurisdiction not only railroads but pipe lines, express companies,
and sleeping-car companies, added to the other familiar restrictions a
"commodities clause," which prohibited any railroad