ABSTRACT
Professor Gabriel Kolko in his recent work, Railroads and Regulation, 1877–1916, presents an interpretation or the origin, motivation, and consequences of the movement for federal regulation of railroads which differs in important respects from that which has hitherto been generally accepted. Thus it has generally been held that railway regulation was a response to the demands of farmers and other shippers for protection against monopolistic and discriminatory tactics on the part of the railroads and that regulation was bitterly resisted by the latter. Since railways operate under conditions of decreasing unit costs over a wide range of output, an attempt to enforce price competition would be futile in the long run, and even if feasible would not be in the public interest. A very important part of Kolko's argument is that the railways strongly supported federal regulation because its administration even more than its content was shaped in their interest.
