RAILWAY LEGISLATION 19$ 



a demand for restrictive legislation made its appearance in the 

 state and the Legislative Farmers 7 Club, organized at the session 

 of 1871-72, had united action upon this subject as one of its 

 purposes. 1 Nothing was accomplished, however, until the 

 summer of 1874, when the farmers of the state began to desert 

 the old political parties and joined together to form the Indepen- 

 dent party with railroad regulation as its principal issue. 2 In 

 October the state grange, representing about two thousand 

 local granges and nearly one hundred thousand farmers as mem- 

 bers of the order, declared for the effective regulation of railways; 3 

 and the legislature responded at its next annual session in 1875 

 by passing a railroad act for which the Illinois law of 1873 an d 

 the Potter law of Wisconsin were used as models. 4 This act 

 fixed maximum rates for freight and passenger transportation 

 and established a railroad commission with extensive powers, 

 but here, as in the other states, considerable difficulty was 

 experienced in enforcing the law. More important than this 

 legislation were the provisions relating to railroads which the 

 radical element succeeded in inserting in the new state constitu- 

 tion adopted in the fall of i875. 5 These provisions, which 

 reflect the influence of similar provisions in the Illinois con- 

 stitution of 1870, declare railroads to be public highways and the 

 companies common carriers and subject to all the liabilities 

 as such, prohibit any railroad from charging more for a less 

 than for a greater distance, and make it obligatory upon the 

 legislature to establish reasonable maximum rates and to pass 

 laws to prevent unjust discrimination and extortion. The 

 granting of free passes to state officers is also prohibited. 

 The railroad sections of this constitution and the ensuing 



1 Rural World, xxvi. 396 (December 16, 1871). 



2 See above, p. 97. 



3 Missouri State Grange, Proceedings, iii. 17, 46, 61-65 (October, 1874). See 

 also ibid. iv. 21, 48, 60, 71, 99 (December, 1875); Chicago Tribune, 1874, Jan- 

 uary 10, p. 2, January 12, p. 8; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1873, P- S I 9> J 874, 

 P- 578. 



4 Wisconsin Railroad Commission, Reports, 1875, p. 38; Iowa Railroad Com- 

 mission, Reports, 1878, p. 53; Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1875, p. 519. 



5 Ibid. 523. See Missouri constitution of 1875 in Thorpe, Constitutions, iv. 

 2264-2267 (Article XII, sections 2, 4, 12, 13, 17, 21, 24). 



