134 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



No railroad corporation shall increase its rates of toll or compensation 

 to be charged for the transportation, receipt, handling or delivery of any 

 property from any point on its line of road to any other point on its line 

 of road, by reason of any decrease in its rates which may be required to be 

 made under the first section of this act. 



The normal or maximum rates for any day, above which no 

 increase was to be made, were fixed as the rates on the cor- 

 responding day of the year 1870. These provisions of the act, 

 all taken together, amount to an attempt to force all rates to 

 the level of the lowest competitive rates as they prevailed in 

 the year 1870, and are based upon the apparently logical reason- 

 ing that these competitive rates must be profitable to the 

 railroads or they would not do the business; ergo, uniform rates 

 in proportion to these throughout the line would also yield a 

 profit. 1 No allowance was made for the fact that a large pro- 

 portion of the expense in railroad business is a fixed charge 

 and does not vary in proportion to the amount of business done, 

 nor for the fact that conditions might easily vary so much on 

 different parts of the same road as to make different rates per- 

 fectly justifiable. The establishment of the rates of 1870 as 

 maxima was especially unwise, because of the unusually large 

 fluctuations in rates during that year. 2 



The " Act to regulate public warehouses and the warehousing 

 and inspection of grain, and to give effect to article thirteen 

 of the constitution of this state " passed the two houses with 

 little opposition, and was approved by the governor April 25, 

 1871. It established, as maximum charges for the storage of 

 grain, two cents per bushel for the first thirty days and one- 

 half cent per bushel for each succeeding period of fifteen days 

 or part thereof. In addition, all warehousemen were required 

 to publish their rates for each year during the first week in 

 January, which rates might not be increased during the year, 

 and there could be no discrimination between customers. 3 



1 See remarks of Mr. Pierce in the constitutional convention of 1870, Debates, 

 ii. 1645. 



2 Illinois Railroad and Warehouse Commission, Reports, 1871, p. 21; Gordon, 

 Illinois Railway Legislation, 28. 



3 Public Laws, 1871-72, pp. 762-773. 



