| OCR Text |
Show -4- monopoly exploit small shippers and non-competitive points, but industrial monopolists in turn exploited railroads by demanding rebates." As a result of the investigation the Act to Regulate Commerce of 1887, was passed into law by the Congress, thus establishing the Interstate Commerce Commission, to protect the public interest in transportation matters, and regulate the various carriers. Even with a federal regulatory agency now in existence to give national coordination to our vast transportation network flagrant violations by carriers and shippers continued; however, as years passed the ICC was slowly able, with the help of Congress, to bring private rail transportation as well as trucking companies, bus lines, freight forwarders, water carriers, and transportation brokers under regulated control, thus protecting the public interest, and giving America the finest transportation system in the world. World War I highlighted the flexibility of the truck, and it won its rightful place in the American transportation system. Until 1935 the motor carrier (trucking) industry was unregulated. Anyone or any company desiring to enter the trucking business was free to do so. Rates were determined between truckers and shippers on an individually negotiated basis, and rate wars were common. Safety standards were almost non-existent. The motor carrier industry was in such bad condition in 1935 that the U.S. Supreme Court observed: "The industry was unstable economically, dominated by the ease of competitive entry and fluid rate picture. And as a result, it became overcrowded with small, economic units which proved unable to satisfy even the most |
