blished for the enforcement of any
laws that might be passed for the regulation of interstate commerce.
Upon the question of pooling the report stated:

"The committee does not deem it prudent to recommend the
prohibition of pooling, which has been urged by many
shippers, or the legalization of pooling compacts, as has
been suggested by many railroad officials and by others who
have studied the question.... The majority of the committee
are not disposed to endanger the success of the methods of
regulation proposed for the prevention of unjust
discrimination by recommending the prohibition of pooling,
but prefer to leave that subject for investigation by a
commission when the effects of the legislation herein
suggested shall have been developed and made apparent."

The report was accompanied by a bill representing "the substantially
unanimous judgment of the committee as to the regulations which are
believed to be expedient and necessary for the government and control of
the carriers engaged in interstate traffic."

The bill was before Congress for more than a year, receiving several
important amendments before its final passage in both houses. It was
approved by the President on the 4th day of February, 1887, and took
effect sixty days after its passage, except as to the provisions
relating to the appointment and organization of an Interstate Commerce
Commission, which took effect at once.

The act contains twenty-four sections, but is by no means cumbersome. It
is, in many respects, the most important piece of legislation that has
been had in Congress for the past twenty years. It applies to common
carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly
by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water, when both are
used, under a common control, management or arrangement, for a
continuous carriage or shipment from one State or Territory of the
United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or
Territory in the United States or the District of Columbia, or from any
place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any
place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place
in the United States. It prohibits unjust and unreasonable charges,
special rates, rebates, drawbacks, undue or unreasonable preferences,
advantages, prejudices and disadvantages, as well as all discriminations
b