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The Elkins Act is a 1903 United States federal law that amended the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The Act authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates, and upon the shippers that accepted these rebates. The railroad companies were not permitted to offer rebates.
The Act, along with the Elkins Act of 1903, was a component of one of Roosevelt's major policy goals: railroad regulation. The most important provision of the law gave the ICC price control power to replace existing rates with "just-and-reasonable" maximum rates, and authorized the Commission to define what was just and reasonable.
Congress passed a minor amendment to the Act in 1903, the Elkins Act. [11] Major amendments were enacted in 1906 and 1910. The Hepburn Act of 1906 authorized the ICC to set maximum railroad rates, and extended the agency's authority to cover bridges, terminals, ferries, sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines. [12]
Continuing concern over rate discrimination by railroads led Congress to enact additional laws, giving increased regulatory powers to the ICC. The 1906 Hepburn Act gave the ICC authority to set maximum rates and review the companies' financial records. [70] The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 strengthened the ICC's authority over railroad rates. [71]
The Mann–Elkins Act, also called the Railway Rate Act of 1910, was a United States federal law that strengthened the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) over railroad rates. The law also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to include regulation of telephone , telegraph and wireless companies, and created a commerce court.
The powers of the ICC were expanded by laws such as the Elkins Act of 1903, the Hepburn Act of 1906, the Mann–Elkins Act of 1910, and the Valuation Act of 1913. The Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 was passed as an early regulation of rail safety. Congress funded high-speed rail with the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965.
1906 – Pure Food and Drug Act and Federal Meat Inspection Act; 1906 – Hepburn Act; 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt negotiates Treaty of Portsmouth, receives Nobel Peace Prize; Teddy Roosevelt, the Bull Moose, led American progressives in the early 20th century. 1906 – San Francisco earthquake; 1907 – Oklahoma becomes a state; 1907 ...
After both houses of Congress passed a uniform law, Roosevelt signed the Hepburn Act into law on June 29, 1906. In addition to rate-setting, the Hepburn Act also granted the ICC regulatory power over pipeline fees, storage contracts, and several other aspects of railroad operations. [51]