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Hi. I'm a journalist. In researching that quote about the ICC (looking to see who he said it to) I think it's mis-attributed.
According to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States - [1] - it came from Richard Olney, a lawyer for the railroads.
The chief reform of the Cleveland administration gives away the secret of reform legislation in America. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 was supposed to regulate the railroads on behalf of the consumers. But Richard Olney, a lawyer for the Boston & Maine and other railroads, and soon to be Cleveland's Attorney General, told railroad officials who complained about the Interstate Commerce Commission that it would not he wise to abolish the Commission "from a railroad point of view." He explained:
The Commission ... is or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal. . . . The part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it.
I've seen this attributed to Olney in several other places, as well.