RAILWAY LEGISLATION 197 



sonable maximum rates and was required to pass laws to prevent 

 unjust discrimination, extortion, and other abuses of railway 

 management. In spite of the mandatory character of this 

 last provision, the agitation for restrictive legislation did not 

 become intense until near the close of the decade and no legisla- 

 tion was secured until iSSi. 1 In Kansas, likewise, the first 

 law providing for state regulation of railroads was not enacted 

 until 1883.2 



On the Pacific coast, the farmers' organizations played a 

 considerable part in movements for railway regulation during 

 the decade of the seventies. The desire to curb the Central 

 Pacific railroad, which practically controlled the transportation 

 situation in California, was one of the causes for the organiza- 

 tion of the farmers of the state into clubs and granges, and for 

 the formation of the People's Independent party in 1873. At 

 its very beginning the state grange resolved " to labor for the 

 reduction of railroad fares and freights, by using all legitimate 

 means to obtain the necessary legislation " and its proceedings 

 are filled with resolutions, addresses, and reports of transporta- 

 tion committees discussing the railroad problem and demanding 

 the establishment of maximum rates and other restrictive 

 legislation. 3 In 1874 restrictive bills passed both houses of the 

 legislature but neither became law. 4 At the next session in 

 1876, however, what was known as the O'Connor bill was enacted 

 into law. 5 This measure established an appointive railroad 

 commission, defined and prohibited extortion and discrimination, 

 and limited the granting of free passes. The commission, how- 

 ever, was given no specific control over rates, the provisions 

 of the bill proved to be too general to be of any value, and the 

 contest was carried into the constitutional convention of 1878. 



1 Dixon, in Political Science Quarterly, xiii. 617-647 (December, 1898); Cullom 

 Committee, Report, i. 113, ii. 1133. 



2 Ibid. i. 102. 



3 Carr, Patrons of Husbandry, 81, 87, 95, 134, 139, 143, 152, 176; Nation, xxi. 

 2 (July i, 1875); California Patron, July 18, 1877, p. 5; Prairie Farmer, xliv. 355 

 (November 8, 1873). 



4 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1874, p. 100. 



6 Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1876, p. 83; H. H. Bancroft, History of California, vii. 

 826-828; Cullom Committee, Report, i. 87. 



