limitations in the Constitution which define the rights of the States on the one hand and of the general Government on the other. But, Mr. Speaker, it must not be forgotten that it is written in the Constitution that it and the laws made in pursuance thereof constitute the supreme law of this land, and, when it comes to executing the Federal authority, let it always be remembered that the shadow of the national flag obscures and obliterates all State lines. There is not a nook or corner or crevice in all this broad land of ours where the power of the Federal Government may not lawfully go when proper occasion arises.

Mr. Speaker, no man who has spoken here, and no one who will speak, will undertake to point out a single thing that has been done by the President and those who have acted with him that has not been for the purpose of maintaining the Constitution and the laws that have been enacted in pursuance thereof. So far as the matters are concerned which the gentleman from Colorado has commented upon as against the Attorney-General, I wish to say here, speaking not only as a Representative, but as a member of the legal profession, that in my judgment the course of the Attorney-General has been such as to command the admiration and inspire the confidence of every good citizen. He is an able lawyer, a brilliant and distinguished member of his profession, and he could not have done less than he has done and at the same time have discharged his duty to the country.

Mr. Speaker, it is not to be tolerated that any class of citizens in this country shall take the law into their own hands. It can not be permitted that commerce between the States shall be paralyzed and that loss shall be inflicted by the millions of dollars upon the people of this country simply because a dispute has arisen between one class of our citizens and another. I say that the President has commended himself to the favorable judgment and the kindly and thoughtful consideration of the people of this country by the lofty, the determined, the courageous attitude which he has assumed in this dreadful controversy, and I hope it will have taught a lesson to men like Debs and others who choose to organize within the body of our citizenship a special class which claims the right to lay its heavy hand upon the business of the country and disturb and paralyze it.

The resolution was adopted without division, at least two-thirds of the Representatives voting for it.

REGULATION OF RAILROAD RATES

[THE HEPBURN BILL]

The Elkins Interstate Commerce Act-President Roosevelt on "Rebates"William P. Hepburn [Ia.] Introduces in the House a Bill to Regulate Railroad Rates-Debate: Varying Views by Charles E. Townsend [Mich.], Robert L. Henry [Tex.], Charles E. Littlefield, Joseph C. Sibley [Pa.], Henry A. Cooper [Wis.], Ollie M. James [Ky.], Augustus O. Stanley [Ky.], Theodore E. Burton [O.], Charles H. Burke [S. D.], Samuel W. McCall [Mass.], James R. Mann [Ill.], William C. Adamson [Ga.], Gordon Russell [Tex.], John J. Esch [Wis.], Oscar W. Underwood [Ala.], William Sulzer [N. Y.], W. Bourke Cockran [N. Y.], John Sharp Williams [Miss.], Mr. Hepburn; Bill Passed by the House Speech in the Senate on "Physical Valuation of Railroads" by Robert M. La Follette [Wis.]; Senate Amends Bill-Compromise Bill: Speech on It in the House by James S. Sherman [N. Y.]; Bill Is Enacted.

Ο

N February 25, 1903, a supplementary act to the act of February 4, 1887 (which had created the Interstate Commerce Commission), and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890 [see Volume XI, chapter 1], was approved by President Roosevelt. It was known as the Elkins' Act, from the mover, Senator Stephen B. Elkins [W. Va.]. Its character will transpire in the following debate.

In his annual message of December 6, 1904, President Roosevelt made the following observations and recommendations upon the subject of rebates:

REBATES

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

Above all else, we must strive to keep the highways of commerce open to all on equal terms, and to do this it is necessary to put a complete stop to all rebates. Whether the shipper or

the railroad is to blame makes no difference; the rebate must be stopped, the abuses of the private car and private terminal track and side track systems must be stopped, and the legislation of the Fifty-eighth Congress which declares it to be unlawful for any person or corporation to offer, grant, give, solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or discrimination in respect of the transportation of any property in interstate or foreign commerce whereby such property shall by any device. whatever be transported at a less rate than that named in the tariffs published by the carrier must be enforced. For some time after the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce it remained a mooted question whether that act conferred upon the Interstate Commerce Commission the power, after it had found a challenged rate to be unreasonable, to declare what thereafter should, prima facie, be the reasonable maximum rate for the transportation in dispute. The supreme court finally resolved that question in the negative, so that as the law now stands the commission simply possess the bare power to denounce a particular rate as unreasonable. While I am of the opinion that at present it would be undesirable, if it were not impracticable, finally to clothe the commission with general authority to fix railroad rates, I do believe that, as a fair security to shippers, the commission should be vested with the power, where a given rate has been challenged and after full hearing found to be unreasonable, to decide, subject to judicial review, what shall be a reasonable rate to take its place; the ruling of the commission to take effect immediately, and to obtain unless and until it is reversed by the court of review. The Government must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the railways engaged in interstate commerce, and such increased supervision is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other. In my judgment the most important legislative act now needed as regards the regulation of corporations is this act to confer on the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to revise rates and regulations, the revised rate to at once go into effect, and to stay in effect unless and until the court of review reverses it.

In the following annual message (December 5, 1905) President Roosevelt returned to the subject, making more specific recommendations, which were largely incorporated in a bill introduced during the session. He closed by saying:

Let me most earnestly say that these recommendations are not made in any spirit of hostility to the railroads. On ethical grounds such hostility would be intolerable, and on grounds of mere national self-interest we must remember that such hostility would tell against the welfare not merely of some few rich men, but of a multitude of small investors, a multitude of railway employees, wage-workers, and most severely against the interest of the public as a whole. I believe that on the whole our railroads have done well and not ill, but the railroad men who wish to do well should not be exposed to competition with those who have no such desire, and the only way to secure this end is to give to some Government tribunal the power to see that justice is done by the unwilling exactly as it is gladly done by the willing. Moreover, if increased power is given to some Government body the effect will be to furnish authoritative answer on behalf of the railroad whenever irrational clamor against it is raised, or whenever charges made against it are disproved. I ask this legislation not only in the interest of the public, but in the interest of the honest railroad man and the honest shipper alike, for it is they who are chiefly jeoparded by the practices of their dishonest competitors.

This legislation should be enacted in a spirit as remote as possible from hysteria and rancor. If we of the American body politic are true to the traditions we have inherited we shall always scorn any effort to make us hate any man because he is rich, just as much as we should scorn any effort to make us look down upon or treat contemptuously any man because he is poor. We judge a man by his conduct-that is, by his character-and not by his wealth or intellect. If he makes his fortune honestly, there is no just cause of quarrel with him. Indeed, we have nothing but the kindliest feelings of admiration for the successful business man who behaves decently, whether he has made his success by building or managing a railroad or by shipping goods over that railroad. The big railroad men and big shippers are simply Americans of the ordinary type who have developed to an extraordinary degree certain great business qualities. They are neither better nor worse than their fellow-citizens of smaller means. They are merely more able in certain lines and therefore exposed to certain peculiarly strong temptations. These temptations have not sprung newly into being; the exceptionally successful among mankind have always been exposed to them, but they have grown amazingly in power as a result of the extraordinary development of industrialism along new lines; and under these

new conditions, which the lawmakers of old could not foresee and therefore could not provide against, they have become so serious and menacing as to demand entirely new remedies. It is in the interest of the best type of railroad man and the best type of shipper no less than of the public that there should be governmental supervision and regulation of these great business operations, for the same reason that it is in the interest of the corporation which wishes to treat its employees aright that there should be an effective employers' liability act, or an effective system of factory laws to prevent the abuse of women and children.

All such legislation frees the corporation that wishes to do well from being driven into doing ill, in order to compete with its rival, which prefers to do ill.

We desire to set up a moral standard. There can be no delusion more fatal to the nation than the delusion that the standard of profits, of business prosperity, is sufficient in judg ing any business or political question-from rate legislation to municipal government. Business success, whether for the individual or for the nation, is a good thing only so far as it is accompanied by and develops a high standard of conduct— honor, integrity, civic courage. The kind of business prosperity that blunts the standard of honor, that puts an inordinate value on mere wealth, that makes a man ruthless and conscienceless in trade and weak and cowardly in citizenship, is not a good thing at all, but a very bad thing for the nation. This Government stands for manhood first and for business only as an adjunct of manhood.

The question of transportation lies at the root of all industrial success, and the revolution in transportation which has taken place during the last half century has been the most important factor in the growth of the new industrial conditions. In the old days the highway of commerce, whether by water or by a road on land, was open to all; it belonged to the public and the traffic along it was free. At present the railway is this highway, and we must do our best to see that it is kept open to all on equal terms. Unlike the old highway it is a very difficult and complex thing to manage, and it is far better than it should be managed by private individuals than by the Government. But it can only be so managed on condition that justice is done the public. It is because, in my judgment, public ownership of railroads is highly undesirable and would probably in this country entail far-reaching disaster, that I wish to see such supervision and regulation of them in