Editing Interstate Commerce Commission (section)

==Initial implementation and legal challenges==
The Commission had a troubled start because the law that created it failed to give it adequate enforcement powers.

{{Quote|The Commission is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, while at the same time that supervision is almost entirely nominal.|[[Richard Olney]], private attorney, in a letter to [[Charles Elliott Perkins]], President of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, December 28, 1892.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Marver H. |title=Regulating Business by Independent Commission |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jETWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA265 |date=1955 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=265 |oclc=231338 }}</ref>}}

Following the passage of the 1887 act, the ICC proceeded to set maximum shipping rates for railroads. However, in the late 1890s, several railroads challenged the agency's ratemaking authority in [[litigation]], and the [[United States federal courts|courts]] severely limited the ICC's powers.<ref name="Sharfman" />{{rp|90ff}}<ref>U.S. Supreme Court. ''[[Interstate Commerce Commission v. Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Co.]],'' {{ussc|167|479|1897}}.</ref> <!-- Add more here about initial difficulties and legal challenges to ICC authority -->

The ICC became the United States' investigation agency for railroad accidents.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://guides.loc.gov/railroads/accidents-safety|title=Accidents & Safety|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|accessdate=2023-08-03}}</ref>