royed a good many vast combinations, including
a combination of the six largest meat-packing concerns in
the country; a combination of railroads which had been restrained
from making any rebate or granting any preference whatever
to any shipper; and a pooling arrangement between the Southern
railroads which denied the right of the shippers interested
in the cotton product in the South to prescribe the route
over which their goods should pass. He has also brought a
suit in equity to prevent the operation of a proposed merger
of sundry transcontinental railroads, thereby breaking up
a monopoly which affected the whole freight and passenger
traffic of the Northwest.

The public uneasiness, however, still continued. The matter
was very much discussed in the campaign for electing members
of the House of Representatives in the autumn of 1902.

I made two or three careful speeches on the subject in Massachusetts,
in which I pointed out that the existing law, in general,
was likely to be sufficient. I claimed, however, further,
that Congress had, in my opinion, the power of controlling
the whole matter, by reason of its right to prescribe terms
on which any corporation, created by State authority or its
own, should engage in interstate or international commerce.
It might provide as a condition for such traffic by a corporation,
that its officers or members should put on file an obligation
to be personally liable for the debts of the concern in case
the conditions prescribed by Congress were not complied with.

The House of Representatives passed a very stringent bill
known as the Littlefield Bill, which was amended by the Judiciary
Committee, of which I was the Chairman, by adding the provisions
of a bill which I had, myself, previously introduced, based
on the suggestions above stated.

But there was a general feeling that the amendments to the
existing law proposed by the Administration were all that
should be made at present. These consisted in providing
severe penalties for granting rebates by railroads to favored
shippers; for having suits under the existing law brought
forward for prompt decision, and for giving the new Department
of Commerce large powers for the examination of the conduct
of the business of such corporations, and to compel them to
make such returns as should be thought desirable.

I should have preferred to have the bill I reported brought
forward and discussed in the Senate, although there