The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-19
method of combination. Towns

Determinations existed among locali-
ties and individuals, and as is always
the rule. the weaker suffered the most.
The American small farmer was gener-
ally the under dog" It often costs
more to ship commodities than they are
worth, and food was burned for fuel in
many communities. Products of the
soil which were greatly desired in one
section of the country went to waste in
another section and localities deemed
themselves deliberately prosecuted by
the combination of great corporate in
terests. When the farmer had once set
tied SO far from the market, he was at
the mercy of the railroad. which fur
nished his only means OF transporta-
tion. And what made matters worse
was that the owners of the roads gen.
orally lived in the East or in Europe
and they were regarded by the farmer
as the absentee landlord is regarded by
the Irish tenantry. Whatever was
paid to the railroad seemed to the farm
er like direct drain on the resources
OF the community. There was thus a
conflict of local interests, which added
political strain to the already existing
Industrial strain. And too frequently
in the treatment of the farmers the
railroad agents added insult to injury.
it has been estimated that the people Of
Iowa contributed either voluntarily or
involuntarily more that $25,0OO,OOO in
money to aid in the construction of rail-
ways within the borders of the state,
and this in addition to the vast amounts
of valuable lands donated by congress.
Yet, in spite of all this bounty, the
stock which represented these vast
gifts gsavitated into the hands of East
ern capitalists. Iowa has had but. lit
tie so say about the management of
railroads crossing her borders, and al
though endowed by nature with great
resources, yet she has few towns of any
considerable size and her railway sys-
TENS have been feeders to build up
Chicago and enrich. nonresident capi-
talfsts. A large portion of the wealth
produced by Iowa has been railroaded
away to enrich other communities.
At length, through the practices of
discrimination, the assumption by the
railroad managers of the right to regu-
late the industrial interests Of different
localities in accordance with their
private interests. and the consequent
creation of trusts for controlling certain
industries became uncomfortable. Then,
too. there came from the outside an
other menace to American farmers.
They no longer received high prices for
their grain. The wheat OF India, Egypt,
the Argentine republic and the region
around the Black Sea reduced the price
in Liverpool, and we all know that the
price in Liverpool determines the price
Of wheat in the United States so long
as we export bushel of wheat or a
barrel of flour.
Consequent upon all these conditions
the feeling in the West was intense.
The farmers of the West, who were
each year creating large portion of the
wealth of the country, were oppressed,
and to them there seemed but one rem
edy-namely, legislation. of some sort.
Accompanying this legislation there
was reputation by many localities of
obligations which they had previously
given freely and enthusiastically to pro-
mote railway construction. The Gran
ger movement, with which you are all
familiar, made rapid strides. The
Changers secured the political ascend
ency, and there began in several states,
and particularly in Illinois, Iowa, Wis
consin, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.
the enactment of those radical statutes.
generally known as Granger laws"
by which the state legislatures assumed
the power to prevent determinations
and fix maximum rates on passenger
and freight within the state. The rail-
roads claimed that these statutes were
strictive legislation, was in some in
stances so extreme and unreasonable as
to make any railway management i'm
possible. But the railroads which by
their Determinations had produced this
feeling aginst them, and by their meth
DDS were in some measure responsible,
were equally obstinate and claimed
they were beyond the power of legisla-
lures and courts There was wrong on
both sides. The old Dartmouth college
decision of the United States supreme
court, which had long.*hrown a sort of
halo of legal sancity sahpat corpora
ton charter as being a contract that
could not be disturbed, Was appealed
to by the railroads The railroads, des-
spite the fact that they were quasi pub
lie corporations, and are given certain
governmental privileges, claimed that
the Dartmouth college case gave them
complete power BY construfng charters
as irrevocable contracts between the
sovereignty and themselves, and lin ef-
feet thereby comforting share in in
dustrial sovereignty upon Them But
the United States supreme court fiiiaffy
held that the esse1tiaie principles of-tho
Granger laws lasal and constitutional
as to local trafic within the boundaries
OF the state. But, as we all know, the
courts also held that state leglslatures
G. 81