200 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



were not at first especially interested in the railroad problem 

 and in each of these states the state granges accepted and thanked 

 the railroad companies for reduced rates to the annual sessions. 1 

 Later in the decade, however, these state granges are found 

 complaining of high rates and discriminations in railway service 

 and asking for legislation to remedy the evils. The New Hamp- 

 shire State Grange addressed a petition to the legislature along 

 these lines in 1879 and it was claimed that the passage by the 

 House of Representatives of a bill to equalize railroad rates and 

 abolish free passes was a result of this petition. 2 This measure 

 was rejected by the Senate but a " short haul " law was enacted 

 prohibiting higher transportation rates for a less than a greater 

 distance on the same line. 3 The influence of the Grange may 

 also have been a factor in securing the Vermont " short haul " 

 law of 1882, and the New Hampshire law of 1883 establishing 

 a commission with power to fix maximum rates. 4 



The farmers do not appear to have played any special part 

 in the movement in New York which led to the Hepburn report 

 of 1879 and the law of 1882, and the law itself was of the Massa- 

 chusetts or supervisory rather than the Granger type. 5 In 

 Pennsylvania, however, the constitution adopted in 1873 shows 

 clearly the influence of the Illinois constitution of 1870 in pro- 

 visions forbidding free passes, unjust discrimination, and the 

 consolidation of competing lines. 6 The legislation which ensued 

 in 1874 was of a very conservative character, 7 and there seems 

 to be no indication that the Grange or any other farmers' organ- 



1 New Hampshire State Grange, Proceedings, iii. 37 (December, 1876); Vermont 

 State Grange, Proceedings, iv. 29 (December, 1875). 



2 New Hampshire State Grange, Proceedings, vii (1880). 



3 Cullom Committee, Report, i. 116. 



4 Ibid. 117, 132. 



6 Hugo Meyer, Government Regulation of Railway Rates, 216-230. See also 

 Industrial Age, November 22, 1873, p. 4, and New York State Grange, Proceedings, 

 ii (January, 1875). 



6 See Article XVI, section 10, and Article XVII, sections i, 3, 4, 8, 10, in 

 Thorpe, Constitutions, v. 3144-3147. Cf. Illinois State Farmers' Association, 

 Proceedings, ii. 34-36 (December, 1873); Wisconsin Railroad Commission, Reports, 

 1874, p. 80. 



7 Cullom Committee, Report, i. 122-124. See also Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1879, 

 p. 719. 



