The limit was extended to the 1 st of August 1900 by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was given discretion in the matter.
For its enforcement, it created an Interstate Commerce Commission of five members, with powers of investigation, and with authority to issue remedial orders upon complaint and after hearing.
The establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission was hailed as a first step toward ending the devastation wrought by rate wars.
This law, however, did not serve in practice to secure so general a use of power brakes on freight trains as was thought desirable, and another act was passed in 1903 to give the Interstate Commerce Commission authority to prescribe what should be the minimum number of power-braked cars in each train.
From 1875 to 1887, when he entered the U.S. Senate, he was again a representative in Congress, and from 1877 almost continuously to the close of his service he was chairman of the Committee on Commerce, in which capacity he had a prominent part in securing the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
