| |
| 1903–13 |
| |
| Railroad legislation. In 1903 the Elkins Act was passed to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which had proved ineffective. The Elkins Act forbade railroads to deviate from published schedules of rates and made railway officers as well as the companies liable in cases of rebating. The Hepburn Act of 1906 extended the control of the commission to express companies, sleeping-car companies, and pipeline, ferry, and terminal facilities. The commission was given power to reduce a rate found to be unreasonable. Passes were abolished and a commodity clause included. The Mann-Elkins Act (1910) extended the commission's jurisdiction to telephone and telegraph lines, and cable and wireless companies. The long-and-short-haul clause was made effective. | 1 |
| |
| 1904, March 14 |
| |
| The Northern Securities Case was decided. The efforts of Edward H. Harriman to gain control, first of the Burlington system and then of the Northern Pacific, had led to the struggle between Harriman and James J. Hill, in which Northern Pacific stock was bid up to fabulous prices, producing the so-called Northern Pacific Panic (1901). This was followed by an agreement between the rival groups for the merging of the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Burlington systems through the Northern Securities Company. The Supreme Court declared the merger to be a violation of the Anti-Trust Act and ordered its dissolution. | 2 |
| |
| Nov. 8 |
| |
| Roosevelt was elected president over Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate, 335 electoral votes to 133. | 3 |
| |
| Dec. 2 |
| |
| Roosevelt enunciated the Roosevelt corollary of the Monroe Doctrine. This was occasioned by the debt situation of the Dominican Republic and the pressure of European countries to compel payment. He said that chronic wrongdoing by powers in the Western Hemisphere might compel the United States under the Monroe Doctrine to exercise an international police power as the only means of forestalling European intervention. Under this doctrine the United States intervened in Santo Domingo and unofficially collected the customs. On July 31, 1907, the American administration left Santo Domingo. | 4 |
| |
| |
