<span>The Interstate Commerce Act was to monitor railroad
operations. During the 1870s a number of countries tested numerous programs
developed to regulate railroad rates and practices, and those subjects were
also repeatedly examined by the Congress. In 1886 the Supreme Court held, in
the Wabash Case, that state governments could not regulate federal shipments
within their borders. In response to that decision, Congress adopted the first
federal program for regulating private business which is the Interstate
Commerce Act. While, the Sherman Antitrust Act, it is an act passed by the U.S.
Congress in 1890 to battle monopoly and inappropriate restraints on
competition. It was also to break up bad trusts that were affecting the
economy. But, it was unsuccessful because there was no clear meaning as to what
a trust or bad trust was. So it was later replaced with the Clayton Antitrust
Act.</span>
