ill was finally passed May 12, 1886.

In the meantime, Mr. Reagan, of Texas, who had been urging a bill
in the House, and had it up for consideration during the same time
the Senate bill was being considered, passed his bill, which differed
essentially from the Senate bill. Both bills went to conference
together, Mr. Reagan being the head of the conferees on the part
of the House, and I being the head of the conferees on the part of
the Senate. Then came the real struggle, the two measures remaining
in conference from June to the following January. The contention
finally centred on the pooling provision. Reagan had yielded on
nearly everything else; but Platt of Connecticut was bound there
should be no prohibition against pooling. Reagan affirmed that
the whole matter would have to drop, that he would never yield on
that. I came back and consulted the leaders in the Senate, Allison
among others, and they advised me to yield; that the country demanded
a bill, and I had better accept Reagan's anti-pooling prohibition
section than offer no measure at all--which I did.

Whether it is right or wrong, I do not know even to this day. I
have never been quite certain in my mind on the question of pooling,
and it is still a subject on which legislators and statesmen differ.
But one thing does seem certain--public sentiment is as much opposed
to pooling to-day as it was twenty years ago. There was a great
fight in the Senate to secure the adoption of the conference report.
Its adoption was opposed by such Senators as Cameron, Frye, Hawley,
Hoar, Morrill, Sawyer, Sewell, Sherman, and Spooner. The pooling
and long-and-short-haul clauses were the most fought over. Senator
Platt, although a member of the conference, made a very able speech
on the subject of pooling, in which he showed considerable feeling,
and I at one time feared that he would oppose the adoption of the
conference report on that account altogether. He concluded a very
able address during the last days of the consideration of the
report, by saying:

"Nine-tenths of all the interstate commerce business done to-day
is done under these arrangements which are sought to be damned
because of the evil meaning which has been given to the word
'pooling.' Whatever stability has been given to the railroad
business, and through it to other business of the country, has been
secured by these traffic arrangements, and in my judgment a bill
which breaks them all up ru