Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-01-06
The judicial decisions in such

doctrine. The judicial decisions in such
cases were, however, finally ali Ill unison,
that q clause in the charter, rpserving for
the legislature the right to alter or repeal
the same. would not be unconstitutional or
invalid because Of its being contradictory to
the granting Of such charter. But, On the
contrary, such q clause would be merely
a limiting and not Il contradictory condition..
The railroad corporations are so much tho
less justified to complain of an alteration iii
their charter in such q case-holds Attorney
General Scott Sloan in his opinion i'll tho
railroad question in Wisconsin-as they ac-
copied the right OF reserve by the Leglsla-
ture with their charter. In Illinois and 9TH
er Western States, the charters were grant
ed to the corporations without SUCH re-
serve. Thus it seems that the legislature
of the most important State in the West had
no power over the railroad corporations.
The railroad corporations Of the West tri-
umphed, and their organs in the public
press sneered at the farmer. Referring to
the operation of the law in regard to supply
and demand, while it is an acknowledged
fact that the existence Of opposition lines
does not regulate the rates of freight, that it
not only contributes nothing towards the
establishment of a uniform, cheap and fixed.
freight tariff, but also creates irregular tariff
rates between competing lines in COMPARE
son to non-competing ones, leading to un-
just discrimination, granting favors to one
shipper and ..overcharging another; be-
sides causing violent fluctuation of the tariff
rates.
The farmers tried at first to get s~atisfac-
ton by ~repudiating the bonds which they
had donated to the railroad corporations.
This blow did not fall upon the heads Of
railroad corporations, but upon those Of the
bona fde owners, and this gave to the rail-
road corporations the best opportunity to
misrepresent the spirit of the movement of
the farmers and to make it appear that their
demands were both unjust and ext%ravagant.
The farmers sought to excuse their repudia-
ton policy, partly by representing the ennis
sion OF bonds for the support of private cor
j. porations as unconstitutional but also part
ly by referring to the irregularities and
frauds practiced at the elections for dona-
tons and the issuing of bonds.
In the mean time, the organization of
farmers oranges had gained in numbers
and i'll consistency. If the reputation OF
county debts demonstrated the political
power of the grangers in a local view, this
was still more effectualIy dome at the ballot
box. There could be no doubt of the inn
portance of the granger movement after the
! grangers had succeeded in electing their
candidates, although the railroad rings
! had Of late managed all of the elections.
The aim which the grangers pursued, to-
wit: The regulation Of the railroad tariffs
I by the State was now no longer considered
+ lost. The new constitution of Illinois. OF
, 1870, declared the railroads to be public
: highways, thereby preventing the extension
, OF the Dartmouth College doctrine to these
cases. Counties, cities and towns were pro-
! hibited from subscribing to shares OF rail-
road or private corporations, and from do
mating anything for the furtherance Of the
the same. The legislature was charged to
4 Xix a reasonable maximum rate for trans
0 portatlon by railroad, and to fix a penalty
Tor every single violation of the tariff regtl-
. latons. PURSUANT to the new constitution,
n the general assembly of 1870 passed an act
q for the regulation Of freights and for the es-
g adjustment OF a railroad commission,
If against which law the railroad corporations
g demonstrated, and succeeded SO far as to
# nave the act declared unconstitutional in the
form IN which it was passed. In the year
1911, however, the general assembly passed