l6o THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



Toward the close of the sixties, however, complaints began 

 to be heard that the railroads were oppressing the people by 

 extortionate and discriminating rates; a dispute over the payment 

 of railroad bonds, which had been issued by the state to aid 

 various roads, helped to arouse antagonism toward the com- 

 panies; 1 and the order of Patrons of Husbandry, which had been 

 developing in the state, began to turn its attention to the trans- 

 portation problem. 2 Restrictive railroad measures were discussed 

 at the session of the legislature in the spring of 1870, but nothing 

 was done. 3 During the ensuing summer and fall, however, 

 the agitation for the regulation of railroads by the state grew 

 rapidly in volume and intensity. It manifested itself in a 

 transportation convention at Owatonna in November, at which 

 resolutions were adopted citing the exorbitant and ruinously 

 discriminating rates and the operation of the roads in the in- 

 terest of wheat rings and other monopolies, and demanding 

 legislation to protect the producers of the state. 4 This demand 

 was too insistent to be denied and the legislature of 1871 quickly 

 responded to it by enacting two railroad laws. 5 One of these 

 laws established a fixed schedule of maximum rates for passen- 

 gers and freights, the passenger maximum being five cents per 

 mile and the freight maxima apparently considerably below 

 the rates then prevailing. 6 The other law provided for a rail- 

 road commissioner and empowered him to collect statistics and 

 enforce the railroad laws. 7 



The attitude of the Minnesota railroad companies toward 

 these laws was precisely the same as the attitude of the com- 



1 On this question, see W. A. Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, 152-161; Ameri- 

 can Annual Cyclopedia, 1869, p. 448, 1870, p. 507, 1871, p. 516. 



2 Minnesota Monthly, i. 249 (July, 1869); Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 256- 

 259. See also below, pp. 46, 49, 53. 



8 Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1869, pp. 6-14, 1870, i. 38-55; Senate 

 Journal, 1870, pp. 65, 117, 249, 288. 



4 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1870, p. 510. 



6 Senate Journal, 1871, pp. n, 21, 26, 114, 176, 269, 292; Special Joint Railroad 

 Investigating Committee, Report to the Legislature, February 15, 1871; Stickney, 

 The Railway Problem, ch. x. 



8 General Laws, 1871, pp. 61-66; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1871, p. 517; 

 Railroad Commissioner, Reports, 1871, p. 10. 



7 General Laws, 1871, pp. 56-59. 



