On October 13, 1880, the California Southern Railroad Company was chartered. Their goal was to build a line from National City, just south of San Diego, up to what is now Oceanside, and then to follow the Santa Margarita River to Fallbrook, and then northward through the Temecula canyon.

What role did the United States government play in the expansion of railroads during the late 1800’s. The federal government gave thousands of acres of land to the railroad companies. New towns emerged near the railroads, exisitng towns grew, and different parts of the country grew in size.

The expansion of the railroad directly led to economic growth in the US because railroads increased competition between different industries. railroads made resources and products easier to transport. railroads led to increased prices of newly available products and resources.

How did railroad expansion affect the growth of major urban centers? New networks were built in the rural West. Traveling between the North and the South became easier. Traveling to and from cities became easier.

Railroad expansion affected the US economy by creating jobs, establishing a national market, establishing a cattle industry on the Plains, and allowing certain people to acquire great wealth through investing in the railroad.

Just as it opened the markets of the west coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi. The railroad ensured a production boom, as industry mined the vast resources of the middle and western continent for use in production.

Munn v. Illinois was considered a win for the National Grange because it upheld the maximum prices they had fought for. The case also stood to represent the U.S. Supreme Court’s acknowledgment that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause could apply to business practices as well as people.

In Munn v. Illinois (1877) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Illinois law which regulated the owners of grain elevators, declaring that government interference was constitutional in areas “affected with a public interest” (Munn vs. Illinois 94 US 113).

Munn v. In Munn v. Illinois, the Supreme Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment (because the Grangers asserted their due process right to property was being violated) did not prevent the State of Illinois from regulating charges for use of a business’ grain elevators.

Legal Definition of Munn v. Illinois. 94 U.S. 113 (1877), upheld the power of government to regulate private industries. A Chicago grain warehouse firm (Munn) had been found guilty of violating state law concerning maximum rates that customers could be charged for storage and transportation of grain.

Approved on February 4, 1887, the Interstate Commerce Act created an Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the conduct of the railroad industry. With this act, the railroads became the first industry subject to Federal regulation.

Illinois, 94 U.S. 113 (1876), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the power of state governments to regulate private industries that affect “the common good.”

The ICC, the first regulatory commission in U.S. history, was established as a result of mounting public indignation in the 1880s against railroad malpractices and abuses (see Granger movement), but until President Theodore Roosevelt, the ICC’s effectiveness was limited by the failure of Congress to give it enforcement …

In 1887 Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, making the railroads the first industry subject to Federal regulation. Congress passed the law largely in response to public demand that railroad operations be regulated. In the years following the Civil War, railroads were privately owned and entirely unregulated.