FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS II 



the expected advantages from the road a chimera. His taxes, 

 moreover, were increased by the investment or donation which 

 his town or county had made for the same purpose. This was 

 one of the principal causes which operated to produce a somewhat 

 blind antagonism among the agricultural population towards 

 railroads and everything connected with them. The farmers 

 felt that, having furnished, either in their private or public 

 capacity, a large share of the funds for the construction of the 

 roads, they were entitled to more advantages therefrom. A 

 result of this feeling was a sporadic movement which might 

 be termed a forerunner of the Granger movement and had 

 for its object the repudiation of the county and municipal rail- 

 way bonds. An attempt was made to have them declared 

 illegal, because issued for the benefit of private corporations; 

 but when a case finally reached the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, their legality was upheld as well as the public character 

 of the railway companies, a decision which was later to be of 

 importance in the contest over state control. 1 



Previous to about 1870 there was little thought of public 

 control of railways; they were looked upon as blessings to the 

 country, the extension of which should be encouraged, rather 

 than checked by subjecting them to any interference. It was 

 generally supposed that competition would prove an efficient 

 regulator, and so the demand was for more railroads and hence 

 more competition rather than for governmental regulation. 2 

 During the period of railway expansion that followed the war, 

 however, it began to be evident that competition was not going 



1 C. F. Adams, Jr., "The Granger Movement," in North American Review, 

 cxx. 410 (April, 1875); Nation, xvii. 140 (August 28, 1873), xxi- 18 (July 8, 1875), 

 xxv. 166 (September 13, 1877); D. C. Cloud, Monopolies and the People, 114-124; 

 M. H. Carpenter, Speech on the Power of the Legislature to Govern Corporations 

 (pamphlet, 1874), 16-18; Case of Olcott v. The Supervisors, 16 Wallace, 678. 

 See below, p. 209. 



2 C. F. Adams, Jr., Railroads, their Origin and Problems, 118-120; E. R. A. 

 Seligman, " Railway Tariffs and the Interstate Commerce Commission," in 

 Political Science Quarterly, ii. 408 (September, 1887); W. Larrabee, The Railroad 

 Question, 129; Windom Committee, Report of the Select Committee on Transporta- 

 tion Routes to the Seaboard, 1874, i. 242; National Grange, Proceedings, ix. n 

 (November, 1875). 



