I am well aware of the difficulties of the legislation that I am suggesting, and of the need of temperate and cautious action in securing it.  I should emphatically protest against improperly radical or hasty action.  The first thing to do is to deal with the great corporations engaged in the business of interstate transportation.  As I said in my message of December 6 last, the immediate and most pressing need, so far as legislation is concerned, is the enactment into law of some scheme to secure to the agents of the Government such supervision and regulation of the rates charged by the railroads of the country engaged in interstate traffic as shall summarily and effectively prevent the imposition of unjust or unreasonable rates.  It must include putting a complete stop to rebates in every shape and form.  This power to regulate rates, like all similar powers over the business world, should be exercised with moderation, caution, and self-restraint; but it should exist, so that it can be effectively exercised when the need arises.

The first consideration to be kept in mind is that the power should be affirmative and should be given to some administrative body created by the Congress.  If given to the present Interstate Commerce Commission, or to a reorganized Interstate Commerce Commission, such commission should be made unequivocally administrative.  I do not believe in the Government interfering with private business more than is necessary.  I do not believe in the Government undertaking any work which can with propriety be left in private hands.  But neither do I believe in the Government flinching from overseeing any work when it becomes evident that abuses are sure to obtain therein unless there is governmental supervision.  It is not my province to indicate the exact terms of the law which should be enacted; but I call the attention of the Congress to certain existing conditions with which it is desirable to deal, In my judgment the most important provision which such law should contain is that conferring upon some competent administrative body the power to decide, upon the case being brought before it, whether a given rate prescribed by a railroad is reasonable and just, and if it is found to be unreasonable and unjust, then, after full investigation of the complaint, to prescribe the limit of rate beyond which it shall not be lawful to go—­the maximum reasonable rate, as it is commonly called—­this decision to go into effect within a reasonable time and to obtain from thence onward, subject to review by the courts.  It sometimes happens at present not that a rate is too high but that a favored shipper is given too low a rate.  In such case the commission would have the right to fix this already established minimum rate as the maximum; and it would need only one or two such decisions by the commission to cure railroad companies of the practice of giving improper minimum rates.  I call your attention to the fact that my proposal is not to give the commission power to