CHAPTER IV 



GRANGER RAILWAY LEGISLATION (ILLINOIS) 



OF all the various aspects of the movement for agricultural 

 organization in the seventies, none attracted so much attention 

 at the time, or was so significant in its results, as the attempt 

 to subject railway corporations to the control of the state. 

 Indeed, this phase of the movement has so overshadowed its 

 other manifestations, that to most writers, even of the present 

 day, the term " Granger movement" appears to connote primarily 

 this struggle between the farmers and the railroads, to the 

 exclusion of the social, intellectual, and cooperative features of 

 the movement. Not only does this subject present one of the 

 most important manifestations of the desire of the farming classes 

 to band together for mutual assistance and support, but it is 

 likewise a very significant chapter in the history of railway 

 transportation in America. It marks the final abandonment 

 of the laissez faire theory that natural laws alone are sufficient 

 to insure the management of railroads in the interest of the 

 public, and the beginning of definite attempts to solve the rail- 

 way problem by restrictive legislation. It is the first appear- 

 ance in the legislative arena, in America, of one of the most 

 vital economic problems which confront American legislatures, 

 state and national, at the present time. 



In dealing with this subject, special attention will be given 

 to the movement in the four northwestern states of Illinois, 

 Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. There were attempts at 

 restrictive legislation in many other states during the decade, 

 and these will be summarized so far as they can be considered 

 parts of the Granger movement, but it was in these four states 

 that the most important laws were enacted; it was in these 

 states that the principal cases leading to important judicial 

 decisions arose; and, finally, in these states the movement for 

 railway legislation was most closely connected with the movement 



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