196 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



legislation met with the usual denunciation by railway officials 

 and were by no means always enforced, 1 but they indicated 

 the determination of the people of Missouri and especially the 

 farmers to subject railway corporations to state control, and 

 they laid the basis for later and more efficient legislation. 



In Kansas and Nebraska the situation was somewhat different. 

 These states were still largely undeveloped and the desire for 

 more railroad facilities was so overpowering that little attention 

 was paid to the question of regulation during the decade of the 

 seventies. The order of Patrons of Husbandry, it is true, 

 flourished vigorously in both states, and in Kansas there was 

 also an Independent or farmers' party, 2 but these organizations 

 were here interested in business cooperation, financial legislation, 

 and general political " reform " rather than in the railroad prob- 

 lem, although the state granges did occasionally reflect the 

 struggle which was going on in the other states of the Northwest 

 by adopting resolutions expressing approval in general terms of 

 state and national regulation of railroads. 3 In 1871 the people 

 of Nebraska rejected a proposed constitution which contained 

 articles prohibiting local aid to railway companies and the con- 

 solidation of parallel or competing lines. 4 In 1875, however, 

 another attempt to provide the state with a new constitution 

 was successful, and this instrument reflects both the changing 

 sentiment in the state and the influence of the constitutional 

 and legislative enactments relative to railroads in the other 

 northwestern states. 5 As in many other state constitutions 

 adopted during this decade, railroads were declared to be public 

 highways and railroad companies common carriers, and the 

 consolidation of parallel or competing lines was prohibited. 

 The legislature was empowered to pass laws establishing rea- 



1 Thomas Allen, The Railroad Problem (pamphlet, 1875); Appleton's Cyclopedia, 

 1878, p. 579; Cullom Committee, Report, i. 112, ii. 797-800. See also Missouri 

 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1875, et seq. 



2 See above, pp. 58, 92, 97. 



3 Kansas State Grange, Proceedings, i (July, 1873); F. H. Dixon, "Railroad 

 Control in Nebraska," in Political Science Quarterly, xiii. 617-647 (December, 

 1898). 



4 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1871, p. 538. 

 6 Thorpe, Constitutions, iv. 2381. 



