192 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



a number of influential eastern papers and a large part of the 

 press of the state. The Nation continued to advise capitalists 

 to refrain from investment in the state, 1 while the Evansville 

 Review, as an example of the local papers, asserted that " since 

 the establishment of the Potter law not a spadeful of earth 

 has been raised towards the construction of a single line of road." 2 

 It mattered not that the railroad situation was nowhere nearly 

 so bad as it was depicted, and that its unfavorable features 

 were not shown to be results of the Potter law. The argument 

 had its effect, and a majority of the people were probably con- 

 vinced that the railroad laws were a serious detriment to the 

 welfare of the state. On the other side, the officials of the 

 state grange continued to support the legislation. In August 

 Master Cochrane issued a circular defending the Potter law, 

 together with another set of questions to be submitted to can- 

 didates for the legislature. Just before the election a pamphlet 

 entitled The Wisconsin Railroad Laws and some Reasons for 

 their Repeal was issued by the railroad forces. Master Cochrane 

 replied to this in another circular. The Bulletin of the Wisconsin 

 State Grange, which had been established as the organ of the 

 order in the state, also defended the Potter law in editorials, 

 denied that it had checked construction, and declared that it 

 needed " to be perfected, not repealed." 3 



The united Democratic and Reform parties renominated 

 Governor Taylor on a platform demanding the continued exer- 

 cise of the sovereignty of the state over corporations, 4 while the 

 Republicans nominated Harrison Ludington, who was expected 

 to favor the repeal of the Potter law and who therefore received 

 the united support of the railroad forces. By this time many 

 of the people were doubtless weary of the controversy and others 

 had been convinced that the laws were injurious, but above all 

 the order of Patrons of Husbandry had declined very consider- 



1 Nation, xx. 190, 241, 338 (March 18, 27, May 20, 1875). 



2 Evansville Review, September 20, 1875, cited in Lea, Grange Movement in Wis- 

 consin (Ms.), 31-34. 



8 Wisconsin State Grange, Bulletin, September, October, November, 1875. 

 4 Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1875, p. 764; Wisconsin Statesman, September 18, 1875, 

 P- 3- 



