Munsey's Magazine, January 1911

# Munsey's Magazine (January 1911)

This issue features a lengthy nonfiction article by Isaac F. Marcosson titled "The Supreme Court of the Railroads," examining seven members of the Interstate Commerce Commission who will decide a major question regarding railroad freight rates. The article provides biographical sketches of these commissioners, characterized as men who rose from humble origins.

Martin A. Knapp, the Commission's chairman, grew up on a New York farm and worked his way through education, becoming a lawyer through night study. Franklin K. Lane, from California, rose from poverty and pursued progressive reform in Tacoma and San Francisco before being nominated as the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1902. Other commissioners profiled include Edgar E. Clark (formerly a brakeman), Francis M. Cockrell (former Confederate officer and U.S. Senator), Charles A. Prouty (New England radical), and Judson C. Clements (former congressman from Georgia). Marcosson emphasizes how railroads shaped American economic development and discusses the commissioners' responsibility in regulating rates affecting the entire nation.