224 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



West, however, for the state Republican convention of Massa- 

 chusetts adopted a resolution asserting the power of Congress 

 over interstate commerce and calling upon it to exercise its 

 powers so as to reduce freights and fares to proper rates. 1 



In pursuance of the call of President Josiah Quincy, the 

 National Cheap Transportation Association met in Washington 

 in January, 1874^ while Congress was in session. All granges, 

 farmers' clubs, workingmen's unions, and merchants' and 

 manufacturers' associations, in sympathy with the movement, 

 were invited to send delegates, and a number of men prominent 

 in the agricultural organizations of the western states were 

 present at the meeting. The resolutions adopted by the asso- 

 ciation declared that relief from excessive rates and other abuses 

 must be brought about by regulation and competition, and 

 advocated the creation of a national bureau of commerce and 

 transportation to take charge of the first of these propositions. 

 Various projects for the construction of government canals 

 and railroads were recommended to Congress and a committee 

 was appointed to urge the desired legislation. The subject of 

 transportation also received consideration at the meeting of 

 the National Grange in St. Louis in February, i874. 3 Master 

 Adams discussed it at some length in his address and made it 

 clear that he preferred restrictive legislation to the construction 

 of new railroads and canals, as a solution of the problem. Colonel 

 Smedley of Iowa presented, as the report of the committee on 

 transportation and cooperation, a series of resolutions, one of 

 which requested Congress to " so regulate the internal commerce 

 between the States as to make the tax upon internal transporta- 

 tion approximate more justly the actual cost." This was 

 adopted along with the rest of the report. 



The greater responsiveness of the House of Representatives 

 to public sentiment, as compared with the Senate, is well illus- 



1 Congressional Record, 43 Congress, i session, 2458. 



2 Nation, xviii. 52 (January 22, 1874); Prairie Farmer, xliv. 353, 412 (Novem- 

 ber 8, December 27, 1873). See also report of Colonel A. B. Smedley, delegate 

 from Iowa, in Iowa, Legislative Documents, 1874, ii. no. 30. Smedley was prom- 

 inent in Grange circles and was later master of the state grange. 



3 National Grange, Proceedings, vii. 14-16, 30, 58, 78 (1874). 



