128 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



correspond with the rapidly declining prices in every other 

 department of trade and commerce. Therefore it was proposed 



that the farmers of the great North-west concentrate their efforts, power, 

 and means, as the great transportation companies have done theirs . . . 

 And, to this end, I suggest a convention of those opposed to the present 

 tendency to monopoly and extortionate charges by our transportation 

 companies, to meet at Bloomington, Illinois, on the 2oth day of April 

 next. . . Congress is now in session, and the Constitutional Convention 

 of this State will then again be convened. Farmers, now is the time for 

 action. l 



This movement received the support of the Prairie Farmer 

 and the convention was attended by a considerable number of 

 leading Illinois farmers. Its attempt to bring about the forma- 

 tion of " Town, County, State and National Transportation 

 Leagues" failed from lack of funds, but a string of vigorous 

 resolutions was adopted. These declared railroad companies 

 public corporations, subject to be regulated and controlled by 

 legislation; denounced the practice of railroads of delivering 

 grain to warehouses without the consent of the shipper or owner; 

 condemned the tendency to consolidation, and the corrupt 

 influence of corporations on courts and legislatures; and ap- 

 proved of canals for cheap transportation and to furnish com- 

 petition for railroads. 2 



The result of this activity is seen in the remarks of some of 

 the delegates in the convention. Thus Mr. Washburne declared : 

 " The people expect that this Convention will inaugurate by 

 this article a contest between the people and the railroads " ; 3 

 Mr. Ross said: " In my judgment there can be nothing done by 

 this convention that will give so much satisfaction as providing 

 in the organic law that the people shall be protected against the 

 aggressions of these monopolies " ; 4 Mr. Snyder of St. Clair 



1 Prairie Farmer, xli. 89 (March 26, 1870); Periam, The Groundswell, 225-227. 



2 Ibid. 227-231; Prairie Farmer, xli. 130 (April 30, 1870). Periam gives the 

 date of this convention as 1869, and the error is repeated in the Documentary History 

 of American Industrial Society (x. 42-46) and in John L. Coulter, " Organization 

 among the Farmers of the United States," in Yale Review, xviii. 279-281 (Novem- 

 ber, 1909). 



3 Debates, ii. 1639. 

 * Ibid. 1711. 



