RAILWAY LEGISLATION 189 



enactment and writs were ordered to be issued as requested. 1 

 Before the close of the month, the presidents of both the North- 

 western and the St. Paul companies signified their intention of 

 acquiescing in the decision, and after October i, the rates of the 

 Potter law, so far as intra-state commerce was concerned, 

 appear to have been in force on all the roads in the state. 2 



Governor Taylor is said to have celebrated the victory of the 

 administration in the state courts with the firing of cannon at 

 the capitol, 3 but he was mistaken if he thought this victory was 

 to ensure the permanent regulation of railroad rates by the state. 

 Even before their cause had been definitely lost in the state 

 courts, the railroad forces turned their attention to another 

 method of obtaining relief from what seemed to them oppressive 

 laws, and entered on a campaign for their repeal. The methods 

 followed in Wisconsin were very similar to those which were 

 being pursued in the other Granger states at the same time; 

 the railroad interests endeavored to persuade the people that the 

 restrictive laws were not only injurious and unjust to the com- 

 panies but that they worked to the disadvantage of the traveling 

 and the shipping public and affected adversely the interests 

 of the whole state. 4 The decision of the state supreme court 

 on the validity of the Potter law brought forth a threat that the 

 public would be given " Potter cars, Potter rails, and Potter 

 time " ; 5 and President Mitchell of the St. Paul company, in 



1 35 Wisconsin, 425; Railroad Commission, Reports, 1874, division iii. 28-78; 

 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1874, pp. 808-810; J. B. Winslow, Story of a Great 

 Court, 339-347; Tuttle, Wisconsin, 645-651. A list of printed briefs, etc., relative 

 to the Wisconsin Granger cases, is in Wisconsin Historical Society, Proceedings, 

 1897, p. 143. See also Hinckley v. Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Com- 

 pany, 38 Wisconsin, 194, in which a verdict of one thousand dollars damages for 

 ejection from a train after paying fare at the legal rate was sustained. 



2 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1874, division iii. 79; American Annual 

 Cyclopedia, 1874, p. 810. See, however, Charles W. Lea, Grange Movement in 

 Wisconsin (Ms.), 31, for a different conclusion. 



3 Nation, xxiv. 143 (March 8, 1877). 



4 Ibid, xviii. 293 (May 17, 1874), xix. 17, 199-201 (July 9, September 24, 

 1874), xx. 53 (January 28, 1875); American Exchange and Review, xxv. 393 (Au- 

 gust, 1874); Lea, Grange Movement in Wisconsin (Ms.), 27; Chicago Tribune, 

 July 20, 1874, p. 4. 



6 Nation, xix. 199-210 (September 24, 1874). 



