From occasional television viewing, on this instance a repeat broadcast of “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” Episode 2, I heard of the Hepburn Act of 1906 as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s “bully pulpit” bills. Researching for myself the details, I found that this 1906 Hepburn Act, along with the 1903 Elkins Act and 1887 Interstate Commerce Act were showing the federal government and labor unions’ intervention in railroad commerce. So these things were happening even before Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, actually near the time when she was born. Did Rand learn this American history? Did she want to present this in an alternate scenario for Atlas Shrugged?