Congress began regulating the railroads of the country in a more positive sense in 1866. By the so-called Garfield Act of that year "every railroad company in the United States, whose road is operated by steam," was authorized by Congress "* * * to connect with roads of other States so as to form continuous lines for the transportation of passengers, freight, troops, governmental supplies, and mails, to their destination";[371] while by an act passed on July 24 of the same year it was ordered, "in the interest of commerce and the convenient transmission of intelligence * * * by the government of the United States and its citizens, that the erection of telegraph lines shall, so far as State interference is concerned, be free to all who will submit to the conditions imposed by Congress, and that corporations organized under the laws of one State for constructing and operating telegraph lines shall not be excluded by another from prosecuting their business within its jurisdiction, if they accept the terms proposed by the National Government for this national privilege."[372] Another act of the same period provided that "no railroad company within the United States whose road forms any part of a line of road over which cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals are conveyed from one State to another, or the owners or masters of steam, sailing, or other vessels carrying or transporting cattle, sheep, swine, or other animals from one State to another, shall confine the same in cars, boats, or vessels of any description, for a longer period than twenty-eight consecutive hours, without unloading the same for rest, water, and feeding, for a period of at least five consecutive hours, unless prevented from so unloading by storm or other accidental causes."[373] REGULATION OF RAILROAD RATES: THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION