Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-05-20
or repeal of the restrictive law.

| for repeal Of the restrictive law.
| II is all history how the activity of
corporation managers had packed the
| Seventeenth Legislature With their
i friends They organized thn house.
Lieutenant Governor Campbell was
committee of the senate was opposed to
repeal by a majority Of two. 1t ls n
| part OF the history of the fight III the
committee that as the battle reached It's
| height two members We're influenced to
change their minds and vote for re-
peal. and the railway commission bill
OF 1879.
| What was this bin Let us refer
again to Benjamin i. Cues history,
of Iowa, from which our previous
statements of facts are drawn. He
says:
This bill had been prepared and
drawn by the attorneys OF two of the
main trunk lines of Iowa railroads. 1t
permitted the governor to appoint the
three commissioners who were clothed
with the power to give advice and re-
ceive their salaries from the railroads;
but With no authority to enforce the
advice. Excellent and well known men
were appointed and for many years a
truce was established between the peo-
pie and the railroad managers on terms
that had been advised by the corpora
tons. All that had been gained by
years of agitation, years OF untiring
effort on the part of the people to es-
tablish their sovereignty over corpor-
ations thru legislation and the courts,
was now surrendered by act of the
Seventeenth General Assembly. II. took
ten years to recover the lost ground
and cost the people OF the state mill
ions of dollars.
Ex-Governor William Larrabee, who
has made special study of railroad
business and legislation, and is re-
garded as high authority, In his excel
lent work on Railroads" says of the
first act for the control Of these corr
porations:
1.-THE Granger laws have been and
still are severely criticised by those
opposed to the principle of state con-
troll and by the ignorant. 1t is never
the less true that those laws We're
moderate. just and reasonably well
adapted to remedy the evils of which
the public complained The obliquy
heaped upon them was the work of
designing men. who desired to continue
their impositions upon the people. The
Iowa law was imperfect in detail and
,n5 f,f hn
greatest legislative achievements in the
history Of the state. 1t demonstrated
to the people their ability to correct
by earnestness and perseverance, the
most far-reaching public abuses and
led to an emphatic judicial declara-
ton Of the common law principle that
railroads are highways and. as such,
are subject to any legislative control
which may be deemed necessary for
the public welfare.
Then came Larrabee as LaFollette
came to Wisconsin. When the Twen-
ty-second legislature raet in January,
1873, Governor Larrabes in his inaugu-
raj address called for a square deal.
He produced the facts and figures to
snow The ueSlIuGlloil ". lGolllpctieioIi Wy
the pooling system. tche railway Or
ganiaation had collided with a super
Tor force. Like LaFollette Larrabee
and his following fought the corpora
tons hit to l,ilt and won.
The present pressure Of railways up
on Iowa politics, the activity of it's
press bureaus, it's newspapers and its
hired men generally, is only history re-
peating itself as any reader may sat
isfy himself by reference to the third
volume of the history referred to above.
1t might be we'll to add that Mr.. Cue
was extremely we'll fitted to write Iowa
political history. He was one of the
delegates who organized the republl-
can party Of Iowa at Iowa City, Feb.
%, 1856. He had been {. member of the
Iowa house Of representatives and of
the Iowa senate, was one Of the authors
of the act that established the Ames
College, and later one of
it's trustees. He was the republican
nominee. for lieutenant governor in
1865, pension agent for Iowa and Me-
braska under Grant and twice editor
OF the Iowa Homestead. Take the
witness.