Railroad Regulation

Aside from Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1895), the most widely cited cases that the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company was involved in were challenges to railroad rate regulation: Stone v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1886) and Reagan v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1894). The movement to regulate railroad rates has been the subject of numerous studies, which have attempted to explain both the politics behind the legislation and its effects.1 The origin and evolution of federal regulation through the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) has received much of this attention. As the first federal regulatory agency, the ICC provides the starting point for many stories about the growth of the federal government. The state regulations that preceded the Interstate Commerce Act are often considered merely as precursors to federal regulation.2