Antitrust Status of Farmer Cooperatives: - USDA Rural Development ...

spect of no rules in the rail service game, it took Congress only a few
months to react, passing the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
This landmark legislation marked the first time Congress
affirmatively exerted its authority under the Constitution to regulate
commerce among the States. It was also the first time Congress
created an independent administrative body, the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC), to regulate trade and commerce. The ICC was
charged with keeping rail rates just and reasonable.
Railroad regulation in the early days of the ICC was not very
effective, at least from the shipper perspective. The railroads used the
ICC to raise rates on their competitive long-haul routes. And they
used the courts to challenge, often successfully, ICC decisions they
didn't like. For example, in the "Maximum Freight Rates" decision 18
the Supreme Court ruled the ICC had the authority to declare rail rates
reasonable or unreasonable, but not the power to prescribe future
rates. ICC v. Alabama Midland Railway Co. 19 held the ICC lacked the
power to prevent short-haul rates from exceeding long-haul rates on
the same railroad.
However, the rising influence of the progressive movement at the
turn of the century, brought with it a feeling that the railroads needed
more stringent public oversight. The Elkins Act of 1903 20 ended the
railroads' practice of giving rebates to large corporations. The
Hepburn Act of 1906 21 gave the ICC the power to set maximum rates.
The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 22 granted the ICC clear authority over
long- and short-haul rate differences. 23
In spite of its new authority, the ICC never became a major factor
in curtailing anticompetitive behavior. Changing economic conditions
18 ICC v. Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Co., 167
U.S. 479 (1897).
19 168 U.S. 144 (1897).
20 Chap. 708, 32 Stat. 847 (1903).
21 Chap. 3591, 34 Stat. 584 (1906).
22 Chap. 309, 36 Stat. 539 (1910).
23 All of these laws and other general rail rate regulation were repealed
by the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (P.L . 94-
210, 90 Stat. 31 (1976)) and subsequent rail deregulation legislation.
13