By a circular letter dated February 3, 1900, the secretary of the Commission
.lecordlngly stated that said bill was designed to give to the Commission "the
authority intended to be conferred by Congress when the bill was originally
enacted ; that the shippers of the country, with the approval of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, seek such an amendment as will empower the Commis-
sion to proceed on the lines and to the ends contemplated by the original act;
that it is respectfully suggested that (the person addressed) take action express-
ing (his) approbation and support to the Senators and Representatives from
(his) State, and to the Committees on Interstate Commerce, and that the secre-
tary would be pleased to be advised of anj' action taken in the premises." Such
action has followed naturally from the view that the " purpose of the act was
to provide a means by which the public could array itself against the carrier."
(Annual Report for 1897, p. -19.)

The Commission, too, has every year taken Congress and the courts severely
to task for failing to agree with its views. The decisions regarding the statute
have rendered " its enforcement as a remedial statute practically impossible."
(Annual Report for 1897, p. 6.)

"Nearly every essential feature of that act has failed of execution." (Id.,
p. 37.)

" By virtue of judicial decision, it (the Commission) has ceased to be a body
for the regulation of interstate carriers." (Id., p. 51.)

" The requests of the Commission for needful amendments have been sup-
ported by petitions, etc. * * * yet not a line of the statute has been changed
and none of the burdensome conditions which call for relief have been removed
or modified." (Annual Report for 1899, p. 5.)

" Until further legislation is provided the best efforts of regulation must be
feeble and disappointing." (Id., p. 5.)

"This (the power to make future rates) is the point to which the attention
of the Congress has been repeatedly called ; this is the defect in the regulating
statute which demands correction. In previous reports this question has been
frequently and fully discussed. We have commented at length upon the weak-
ness and inadequacy of the law as its provisions have been construed by the
courts." (Annual Report for 1903, p. 