The stringent provision for imprisonment did not prove any more effective than the milder law that preceded it, less so apparently, for the following years were flooded with unfair discriminations.[41] CHAPTER VIII. EFFECTS OF THE INTERSTATE ACT. An investigation by the Commission in May, 1889, concerning passes, and covering 27 railroads, showed that passes were issued freely to expressmen, telegraph men, press men, managers of excursions, attorneys, persons contracting with the railroads in consideration of advertising, shippers, members of legislative bodies, United States, State, and municipal officers, officials of steamship and steamboat lines, etc. These passes were chiefly limited to a State, but to some extent were good for interstate journeys. Of State passes the larger numbers were issued to members of legislatures and drovers; “complimentaries” came next, with United States and municipal officers, newspapermen, and shippers, in the order named. The Commission said: “The Interstate Commerce Act was intended to end all the abuses attending free transportation of persons, and to a considerable extent it has done so. But very largely the carriers, especially the strong systems, where the abuse has been greatest, have tried to avoid the law by falling back on State protection, and issuing passes within the limits of each State. Three of the large railroad systems, when called on by the Commission to make an exhibit of the passes issued by them, declined to do so on the ground that the passes were limited to the bounds of the State, and therefore not within the jurisdiction of the Commission. If the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads can thus issue passes at discretion it is impracticable to enforce the laws against their competitors.”[42] By issuing to a favored individual a pass good in Pennsylvania, another good in Ohio, another for Indiana, another for Illinois, etc., the Pennsylvania Railroad can give the beneficiary as full freedom of its lines as any interstate pass could give. Pass making went merrily on all over the country, with a complaint now and then to let in the light, but no effective crusade against the disease. The Boston and Maine, for example, issued passes in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, to public officers of the States and the United States, members of legislatures, and railroad commissions, agents of ice companies, milk contractors, newspaper men, etc.[43] The Commission recorded its protest and declared that the “similar circumstances” of the Interstate Act do not relate to the social or official position of the passenger;[44] but the pestilence is beyond the reach of the national board, and after eighteen years of Federal prohibition our railroad business is still honeycombed with political and commercial passes, as we have already seen in the second chapter of this book.