[683] Congressional History at p. [513], supra. The coal combination will be fully described in vol. II.
[684] United States v. Delaware and Hudson Railroad, etc.; 213 U. S., 257.
[685] 220 U. S., 257; decided April, 1911.
[686] A monograph by Mr. Eliot Jones of Harvard University on the anthracite coal business, soon to be published, will afford every detail of these transactions.
[687] Intercorporate Relations of Railways, Special Report, Int. Com. Com., 1906, p. 24.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MANN-ELKINS ACT OF 1910
Prompt acquiescence by carriers, [557].—Opposition begins in 1908, [557].—Political developments, [558].—President Taft's bill, [559].—Three main features of the new law, [560].—Suspension of rate changes, [561].—Former defective injunction procedure remedied, [562].—The new long and short haul clause, [564].—Provision for water competition, [566].—The new Commerce Court, [566].—Congressional debates, [567].—Jurisdiction of the new Court, [568].—Its defects, [569].—Prosecution transferred to the Department of Justice, [570].—Liability for rate quotations, [571].—Wider scope of Federal authority, [572].—Its report analyzed, [574].—The Railroad Securities Commission, [573].—The statute summarized, [578].
The course of events after 1906, so far as acquiescence in the law was concerned, was precisely like that of twenty years earlier. For some time the railroads seemed submissive,—in almost a chastened mood. The Commission also exercised its new powers rather timidly. Up to July 1, 1908, only a single appeal to the Federal courts had been taken by the carriers against orders of the Commission. A sudden change of front supervened at this time. During the second half of that year, sixteen suits to set aside orders of the Commission were filed. Nine more were entered in the following year, and thirteen during 1910; with the result that the dockets were greatly congested with proceedings of this sort. No less than thirty-six were before the circuit courts, when in 1910 they were all transferred to the newly constituted Commerce Court, soon to be described. This accumulation of unfinished business, with the consequent delay in settlement of important transportation disputes, contributed greatly to the movement in Congress in favor of further amendment of the law.