Part IX

Congress and the Railroads

Record Group 46 Records of the U.S. Senate

IX.1 There are several U.S. Senate committees and sub-committees that dealt with the subject of Federal legislation and regulation of railroads. The major committees were the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, 1863-73; the Committee on Railroads, 1873-1921; the Committee on Interstate Commerce, 1887-1946; and the Committees on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 1947-61, and Commerce, 1961-68. The records are described in detail in the Guide to the Records of the United States Senate at the National Archives: 1789-1989, Bicentennial Edition, Senate Document #100-42 (1989) and in the Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States Senate, PI 23.

Records of the Senate Committee on the Pacific Railroad (1863-73)

IX.2 On July 7, 1861, the Senate established the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad to deal with two bills to authorize construction of a transcontinental railroad. In 1862, this select committee reported on the bill that Congress enacted granting a charter to the Union Pacific Railroad Company to construct such a railroad. At the beginning of the 38th Congress, the select committee was made a standing committee, which it remained until 1873, when the Committee on Railroads replaced it. The records of the committee include committee papers, 1867-71, and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures that were referred to the committee, 1864-71. Most of the records of these series concern the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the northern, central, and southern transcontinental railway routes.

Records of the Senate Committee on Railroads (1873-1921)

IX.3 This committee succeeded the Committee on the Pacific Railroad on March 12, 1873. Although the committee continued to exist after the 50th Congress (1887-1889), other committees, such as the Committee on Interstate Commerce, acquired legislative jurisdiction over matters formerly under this committee's authority. Consequently, there are few records after 1889. Records of this committee include committee papers, 1875-1889, and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures referred to the committee, 1873-1911. The committee papers include legislative case files, papers relating to the Union Pacific Railroad, reports on railroad construction and financial aid to railroads, and the granting of rights-of-way through Indian lands.

Records of the Senate Select and Standing Committees on Pacific Railroads (1889-1921)

IX.4 The Select Committee on Pacific Railroads, 1889-93, was appointed following an investigation into the finances of the Union Pacific Railroad. The select committee's successor standing committee existed during the period from 1893 to 1921. Records include petitions and memorials referred to the committee between 1889 and 1897, which chiefly concerned a bill proposing to extend the time for the Union Pacific to repay its bonds owed to the U.S. Government.

Records of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce (1887-1946)

IX.5 The primary interest of this committee has been regulation of railroads in accordance with the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. This act gave the Federal Government a degree of control over railroads, and this committee provided a vehicle by which amendments to the Act could be considered. The committee later became involved in, among other things, railway labor matters. The records of the committee include committee papers, 1889-1946; petitions, memorials, and resolutions of state legislatures that were referred to the committee, 1893-1946; minutes, legislative and executive dockets, and subcommittee papers. The committee papers include executive communications such as printed ICC valuation dockets and other ICC-originated and transportation-related reports and papers. The petitions and memorials cover a broad range of subjects including general powers of the ICC; railroad and common carrier regulation; railroad labor and safety issues; and railroad business practices, such as pooling, ticket scalping, and railroad rate disputes.

IX.6 Records of the Subcommittee to Investigate Interstate Railroads contain relevant records. On May 20, 1935, the Senate agreed to S. Res. 71, 74th Congress, authorizing an investigation of the financial condition of railroads and railroad affiliates for the purpose of recommending legislation needed to improve the prosperity of the railroads in light of the decline in income of the railroads in previous years. The subcommittee collected documents from the files of railroad, investment, and related business organizations; held hearings; and published its findings and recommendations in a series of reports; finally completing its work in 1942. The records of the subcommittee, dating between 1935 and 1942, include correspondence and reports created by railroads and related businesses; memoranda and other administrative communications; transcripts of the committee's hearings; legal documents and court records; printed House and Senate bills; questionnaires sent to and completed by experts in the field; working papers; and oversized documents.

Records of the Senate Committees on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (1947-61) and Commerce (1961-68)

IX.7 This committee inherited the responsibilities of the Committee on Commerce as a result of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. The committee was renamed the Committee on Commerce in 1961 and in 1977 was renamed the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The responsibilities for regulation of interstate railroads rested with each of these committees. For the most part, the records of this committee consist of legislative case files and subject files. The legislative case files, 1947-68, are arranged by Congress and thereunder by type of bill. These records include copies of printed bills, amendments, committee reports, printed hearings, correspondence, reports, and related records pertaining to bills and resolutions brought before the committee, such as the issue of ICC rate making and investigations into the shortage of boxcars.

IX.8 Some subcommittees under these committees produced relevant records. In May 1949, a Subcommittee on Domestic Land and Water Transportation was established to compile basic data and make a comprehensive study of all domestic land and water transportation facilities in the United States, including steam and electric railroads, the Railway Express Agency, the Pullman Company, railroad holding companies, and freight forwarders. The subcommittee was particularly interested in the effect of public expenditures upon transportation charges and the impact of transportation rates on the costs of goods and services to consumers. At the beginning of the 84th Congress, a standing Subcommittee on Surface Transportation was established. The records of the Subcommittee on Domestic Land and Water Transportation, 1949-52, contain correspondence, collected reports, and transcripts of the hearings. The records of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation include subject files, 1958-68, which focused heavily on railroad matters such as the 1958 study on the problems of the railroads and the activities of the ICC. The Subcommittee on New England Transportation investigated the operation of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The records, from 1951 to 1952, include an unprinted transcript of a hearing held July 2, 1951, a research and reference file consisting of material supplied by the ICC, and staff memorandums.

Records of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia (1816-1968)

IX.9 This committee was established on December 18, 1816, to assume responsibility of matters relating to the District of Columbia. The committee was terminated on February 11, 1977, and its responsibilities were reassigned to the newly created Committee on Governmental Affairs, which has a subcommittee on the District of Columbia. Transportation was a major, if not the major, concern of the committee into modern times. Railroads, including the street railways, had by far the greatest impact on the local environment. This impact is reflected in both the committee papers and in the petitions and memorials. From the 32nd Congress (1851) onward, there are many petitions by railroad companies, such and the Baltimore and Ohio and the Metropolitan, requesting incorporation and permission to extend lines into the District. By the 1870s, however, local citizens began to protest the proliferation of track throughout the city, and on the Mall in particular, where the Baltimore and Ohio depot was located. Other records include material concerning race discrimination and segregation on railroads in the District. There are also records of the Subcommittee to Investigate Public Transportation in the District of Columbia, 1953-54.

Records of the Senate Committee on Public Lands (1816-1946)

IX.10 One of the original standing committees of the Senate, this committee dates from December 10, 1816. The committee had jurisdiction over all legislative proposals relating to the disposition of public lands. Among its responsibilities was supporting railroad construction by providing grants of land and rights-of-way through public lands. Records of the committee include numerous petitions on behalf or in support of land grants to aid the construction of railroads, including the transcontinental railroad. Records exist regarding legislation concerning disputes over title to railroad lands and railroad company policies and practices that were considered by the committee.

Records of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor (1870-1946)

IX.11 Many of the petitions submitted to this committee concerned particular incidents related to and including strikes. During World War I, the committee received many petitions regarding strikes by railroad workers and coal miners.

Records of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (1947-68)

IX.12 This committee inherited almost all of the legislative responsibilities of the Committee on Education and Labor, including measures relating to education, labor, and the public welfare. These measures included mediation and arbitration of labor disputes, wages and hours of labor, railroad employment, and railroad retirement. The records of the full committee include legislative case files; presidential messages and executive communications; and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of state legislatures and other bodies.

Records of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads (1816-1947)

IX.13 The records of this committee include bills, resolutions, petitions and memorials, correspondence, and reports relating to claims, compensation of postmasters, postal routes, post roads, and railroads. The committee papers and petitions include requests that railroads provide mail service, requests for a transcontinental railroad, a bill for regulating compensation for transporting mail on railroad routes, and a report of the Special Commission on Railway Mail Transportation (45A-E15). The records also document technical innovations that applied to improving mail service such as the Gyles' improved automatic car stove fire extinguisher for use on railway mail cars (47A-E17).

Records of the Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service (1947-68)

IX.14 This committee assumed jurisdiction over the railway mail service in 1947. The significant bodies of records of the full committee include legislative case files; Presidential messages and executive communications; petitions, memorials, and resolutions of state legislatures and other bodies; and general correspondence.

Records of the Senate Committee on Roads and Canals (1820-57)

IX.15 One of the responsibilities of this committee was construction of railroads. The committee reports and papers, from 1825 to 1947, include documentation concerning improvements to navigation and construction of railroads, particularly a transcontinental railroad and accompanying telegraph line and requests from canal and railroad companies for financial assistance in the form of stock subscriptions and land grants.

Records of Senate Select Committees (1847-1921)

IX.16 Certain select committees dealt with transportation issues. The records include printed bills and committee reports, transcripts of hearings, and petitions and memorials concerning, among other subjects, Pacific railroads.

Record Group 233 Records of the U.S. House of Representatives

IX.17 The major House committees that dealt with the regulation of railroads were the Committee on Commerce, 1819-92, and the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 1892-1968. There were also several smaller committees that dealt with more specific areas of railroad legislation, such as Pacific railroads, the District of Columbia, and land-grant railroads. These records are described in detail in the Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives: 1789-1989, Bicentennial Edition, House Document #100-245 (January 1989) and the Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1946, PI 113.

Records of the House Committee on Commerce, 1819-92

IX.18 This committee was responsible for, among other items, the regulation of railroads. Committee papers concerning railroads include materials relative to an investigation authorized on May 24, 1876, of alleged collusion among railroad companies to control commerce. The records include a copy of the resolution referring the matter to the committee, as well as letters and telegrams received, lists of railroad rates, and newspaper clippings. Among the subjects covered are alleged rate discrimination of the Central Pacific Railroad and documentation concerning the Reading Railroad strike. Other records of the committee relating to railroads include petitions and memorials during the period after the Civil War, including many protests against unjust discrimination in the rates charged by common carriers, calls for government regulation of interstate commerce, comments regarding the effects of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, and calls for Government action to require safety devices for railroads.

Records of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (1892-1968)

IX.19 This committee assumed the function of regulation of railroads from the Committee on Commerce. Records include memorials, petitions, committee papers, and other records relating to discrimination in railroad rates; objections to restrictions on railroads, regulation of railroad labor practices and railroad retirement and unemployment; distribution of free passes to legislators; and matters relating to the regulation of railroads such as the Interstate Commerce Act.

Records of the House District of Columbia Committee

IX.20 The committee reported on various municipal concerns including those involving railroads. Records include petitions for the chartering or rechartering and documents relating to the improvement in railroad companies and street car lines. Also included are annual reports of railroad companies that operated in the District and printed and unprinted material on railroads and street car lines concerning fares, transfers, track and depot locations, and grade crossings.

Records of the House Committee on Public Lands (1805-1951)

IX.21 At first, this committee was primarily concerned with the sale and settlement of public lands. Later, the committee exercised jurisdiction over the many facets of administration of the lands in the public domain. Among the records of the committee are numerous petitions concerning grants of land for railroads.

Records of the House Committee on Pacific Railroads (1865-1911)

IX.22 This committee had jurisdiction over subjects relating to the railroads and telegraph lines between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast, among them the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. The records include petitions and memorials that largely favor construction of a transcontinental railroad to be built through Government subsidy. By the 1890s, the committee received petitions that alleged that railroads had been more interested in acquiring Federal land and subsidies than in constructing and maintaining railroads. Other records include committee papers, agreements, and transcripts of committee hearings.

Records of the House Committee on Territories (1825-1946)

IX.23 This committee reported legislation concerning the structure, status, and power of the territorial governments on matters relating to railroads and other public works. Subjects include Alaskan railroads and the construction of railroads in the territories of the West to facilitate trade and emigration.

Records of the House Committee on Railways and Canals (1869-1927)

IX.24 This committee had jurisdiction over railways and canals other than the Pacific railroads for the period 1880 to 1892, at which point it was taken over by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. The records include petitions and memorials that concern proposals for Government assistance for the construction of canals and railways and the introduction of uniform freight rates for railroads engaged in interstate commerce. Other subjects included the construction of a double-track freight railway from the Atlantic to the Missouri River, from 1873 to 1875; the granting of railroad rights-of-way; the protection of railroad employees; and railroad safety.

Other Records

IX.25 The records of the House Committee on the Judiciary (1813-1969) include material relating to the investigation of the Pacific railroads and the Kansas Pacific Railroad. There are also records of select committees of the House of Representatives regarding a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Nontextual records of the House include card photographs taken in conjunction with the "Oklahoma Railroad Bill" (H.R. 3606, 53rd Congress) showing Round Pound, Wharton, and Enid, Oklahoma. Included are general views of the towns, businesses, railroad yards, and townspeople, dating from 1893 to 1894 (233-T).