Editing Mann–Elkins Act (section)

==Background==
President [[William Howard Taft]] was concerned about controlling unfair trade practices and competition in the railroad industry. During his 1908 presidential campaign, Taft called for a railroad rate law and policies to boost competition in the rail industry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dixon |first=Frank Haigh |date=1910 |title=The Mann-Elkins Act, Amending the Act to Regulate Commerce |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1883490 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=593–633 |doi=10.2307/1883490 |issn=0033-5533}}</ref> His administration argued that the [[Interstate Commerce Act]] (1887) and the [[Hepburn Act]] (1906) were only partially effective in addressing problems that the railroads had imposed upon the national economy. Taft supported amending the Interstate Commerce Act to allow the ICC's initiation of suspending of railroad rate increases (rather than just by responding to complaints). Taft also recommended that railroads should be allowed to arrange rate increases among themselves. (The latter proposal was not adopted in the enacted legislation.)<ref name=Pringle>{{cite book |last=Pringle |first=Henry A. |title=The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.164430/page/n4 |date=1939 |publisher=Farrar & Rinehart |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|522-526}}