Government Action
_During this
time period the government had a major impact on important
thing occurring at this time. The government had a major effect on the
railroad and other court cases at this time. The government provided a
lot of the major funding that was needed to complete the project.Without
the governments help the railroad may have never happened.
The government wanted to use more Chinese to build the railroad because It thought that they didnt matter. The government would rather have a Chinese citizen die working than have an American one die. This is another example of the class system that was created during this time period.
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The Granger lawsThey were a result of the railroad fixing its rates to put and keep the farmers in debt. The railroad was the farmer's main source of transportation of its grain. But when the railroad began to charge unfair rates for transportating the goods the farmers began to elect representatives that would draw up plans for laws. Laws that would prevent the railroads and other businesses to make their prices unfair. They said that the government could only regulate private. These laws eventually led to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, and came into play in the wabash case and the Munn vs. Illinois case.
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Munn Vs. IllinoisIn this case Munn wanted to raise the price on the railcars. The state of Illinois said that he could not do that because the granger laws/ interstate commerce act. This causes Munn to respond saying that the states cannot regulate this type of thing. The end verdict is that the state of Illinois will come up with a set price for railcars for the state.
| Wabash CaseThe Supreme court said that states laws about interstate commerce were unconstitutional because the went against the commerce clause. It did however allow states governments to regulate business within its own boarders.
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Interstate Commerce ActIt gave the federal government the right to supervise rairoad activity. This basically put the railroad into the federal governments hands instead of the states and individual peoples hands. It was created by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which had 5 members included in it. This act was pretty ineffective because it had to rely on court decission and judges to carry out its intentions.
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