Recent Financial Investigations By the Inter-State Commerce Commission

• Author: Ernest Ritson Dewsnup
• Published date: 01 January 1916
• Date: 01 January 1916
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271621606300118
• Subject Matter: Articles

199

RECENT

FINANCIAL

INVESTIGATIONS

BY

THE

INTER-

STATE

COMMERCE

COMMISSION

BY

ERNEST

RITSON

DEWSNUP,

Professor

of

Railway

Administration,

University

of

Illinois.

The

act

to

regulate

commerce

gave

to

the

commission,

created

by

it,

authority

to

inquire

into

the

management

of

the

business

of

interstate

common

carriers.

No

limitation

upon

the

scope

of

in-

quiry

so

long

as

it

concerned

the

management

of

the

business

of

carriers

subject

to

the

act

would

appear

to

have

been

imposed.

Under

this

authority,

the

Interstate

Commerce

Commission

has

apparently

had

power,

at

any

time

during

its

existence,

to

investi-

gate

not

merely

rates

and

traffic

regulations

but

also

any

matters

concerning

operation

and

fiscal

administration

that

it

chose

to

be

interested

in.

However,

this

large

investigative

power

was

allowed

to

lie

more

or

less

in

abeyance,

so

far

as

the

last

mentioned

aspects

of

railway

management

were

concerned,

for

twenty-five

years

or

thereabouts.

To

some

extent,

it

was

incapable

of

effective

utili-

zation

on

account

of

the

failure

of

the

original

act

to

provide

suffi-

ciently

complete

control

over

traffic

and

fiscal

records

and

accounts

or

adequate

machinery

with

which

to

pursue

inquiries

of

this

kind.

The

Hepburn

amendment

of

1906

remedied

this

by

definitely

assigning

to

the

commission

such

control

and

by

authorizing

the

employment

of’special

agents

or

examiners

with

full

powers

of

in-

vestigation.

The

half-dozen

years

immediately

following

the

enactment

of

the

Hepburn

amendment

were

employed

by

the

commission

in

molding

into

uniform

pattern

the

myriad-shaped

accounts

of

the

carriers

and

in

organizing

a

corps

of

inspection

to

assist

in

this

de-

sirable

simplification.

By

1912,

the

commission

evidently

fclt

itself

in

a

position

to

make

use

of

its

strengthened

facilities

of

inquiry,

and,

with

admirable

courage,

determined

to

try

its

hand

upon

no

less

important

a

corporate

body

than

that

of

the

New

York,

New

Haven

and

Hartford

Railroad

Company,

including

its

ancillary

member,

the

Boston

and

Maine

Railroad.

For

some

time

prior

to

the

investigation

undertaken

by

the