The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, also known as an Act to Regulate Commerce, was signed by President Grover Cleveland on February 4, 1887. With the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act, the railroads became the first federally regulated industry in the United States. The passage of this act was a challenge to the nineteenth-century notion of laissez-faire. Laissez-faire economics is the idea that industries will thrive with the least amount of governmental interference or regulation possible, other than that which is necessary to protect individual and property rights. This act also created the Interstate Commerce Commission, a five-member committee that would oversee the investigation of railroad abuses and the enforcement of the act. While the Interstate Commerce Commission was unique in its time, it became the model for future government regulatory agencies. Its initial purpose was to address the issues of railroad abuses and discrimination, in which large markets received greater pricing benefits and preferential treatment than did their smaller counterparts.