ver consciously held
otherwise, that a statute of a State intended to regulate or tax
or to impose any restriction upon the transmission of persons or
property from one State to another is not within the class of
legislation which the States may enact in the absence of legislation
by Congress, and that such statutes are void."

This decision of the Supreme Court was rendered just about the time
I was elected to the United States Senate, and I then and there
determined that I would make it one of my great aims in the Senate
to secure the enactment of a Federal statute regulating interstate
commerce.

It would seem astonishing that the Commerce clause of the Constitution
should have remained dormant, as it did for nearly a century.
Aside from two unimportant acts, no statute had been passed under
it from the beginning of the Government until the Act to Regulate
Commerce was passed in 1887.

Not even a serious attempt had been made to pass an act for the
regulation of interstate commerce. Bills were introduced from
Congress to Congress and laid aside; some investigations were made
--as, for instance, the Windom investigation by a select committee
of the House in 1873--but it all came to naught. It seemed that
no one man, either in the Senate or House, had made it his business
to secure the passage of such an act.

Very fortunately, as I see it now, when I first came to the Senate,
I received no important committee assignments. Having been in
public life for many years, member of Congress, Governor of my
State, I naturally felt that I would be properly taken care of
without appealing to my older colleagues for assistance. Even my
own colleague, General Logan, did not interest himself in the
matter. I attended the caucus when the committee announcements
were made, and observing that I received nothing of any consequence,
I addressed the caucus and protested that I had not been treated
properly. Later Senator Edmunds resigned his place as a regent of
the Smithsonian Institution and I was appointed to succeed him in
that position.

I was assigned, however, to the Committee on Railroads--which was
then what we know now in the Senate as a non-working committee.
I determined that the committee should have something to do, and
I immediately became active in securing the consideration of an
act for the regulation of interstate commerce. I drew up a bill,
introduced it, had it referred to the committee, and finally se