. He has accomplished greater
results in that office than any of his predecessors, and should
remain there as long as he will consent to serve.

CHAPTER XXI
INTERSTATE COMMERCE

At the time I am writing these lines, no question of governmental
policy occupies so prominent a place in the thoughts of the people
as that of controlling the steady growth and extending influence
of corporate power, and of regulating its relations to the public.
And there are no corporations whose proceedings so directly affect
every citizen in the daily pursuit of his business as the corporations
engaged in transportation.

Of the many new forms introduced into every department of civilized
life during the past century, none have brought about more marvellous
changes than the railroad, as an instrumentality of commerce. The
substitution of steam and electricity for animal power was one of
the most important events in our industrial history. The commercial,
social, and political relations of the nations, have been revolutionized
by the development of improved means of communication and
transportation. With this changed condition of affairs in the
commercial world came new questions of the greatest importance for
the consideration of those upon whom devolved the duty of making
the nation's laws.

In the early days of railroads, the question was not how to regulate,
but how to secure them; but in the early seventies their importance
grew to such proportions that the railroads threatened to become
the masters and not the servants of the people. There were all
sorts of abuses. Railroad officers became so arrogant that they
seemed to assume that they were above all law; rebating and
discrimination were the rule and not the exception. It was the
public indignation against long continued discrimination and undue
preferences which brought about the Granger Movement, which resulted,
seventeen years later, in the enactment of the first Interstate
Commerce Act.

With the Granger Movement of the early seventies, and the passage
of State laws for the control of railroad transportation, began
the discussion which is still before Congress and the public as
one of the live issues of the day.

It so happens that I have been intimately connected with this
subject from the time I was serving as Speaker of the Illinois
House of Representatives in 1873.

The State of Illinois, like most of the Western States, had a law
on the subject of railro