The fact that railways would finally become the all-important vehicles of inter-state commerce was either overlooked or considered unimportant.

The general government did not interfere--except when, as in the case of the Pacific lines, its interference and assistance were solicited by private interests.

For a long time the idea that the Federal government had any general responsibility in respect to the national transportation system was devoid of practical consequences.
In the end an Inter-state Commerce law was passed, in which the presence of a national interest in respect to the American system of transportation was recognized.

But this law, like our tariff laws, was framed for the benefit chiefly of a combination of local and special interests; and it served little to advance any genuine national interest in relation to the railroads.

To be sure it did forbid rebates, but the machinery for enforcing the prohibition was inefficient, and during another twenty years the prohibition remained substantially a dead letter.