Editing Elkins Act (section)

==Background==
[[United States Congress|Congress]] passed the Elkins Act as an amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act. Without restrictive legislation, large firms could demand rebates or prices below the [[collusion|collusive price]] from railroad companies as condition for their business. As a result, it was common practice for railroads to offer competitive lower rates for transport between the large cities with high density of firms than the [[monopoly|monopolistic]] rates between less industrial cities, irrespective of length of travel.<ref>Hovenkamp, Herbert. "Regulatory Conflict in the Gilded Age: Federalism and the Railroad Problem." Yale Law Journal. Vol 97, No 6 (May, 1998), pp. 1027.</ref> Trusts constituted such a substantial portion of a carrier's revenue that the trusts could demand rebates as a condition for business, and the carrier would be forced to cooperate.