RAILWAY LEGISLATION 149 



legislation, 1 it should be kept in mind that the general assembly 

 did not authorize, and did not intend to authorize the commission 

 to arbitrarily determine the rates or even maximum rates of 

 railroad charges, but merely placed the burden of proof of the 

 reasonableness of rates upon the railroad companies, just as in 

 a preceding section it had placed upon them the burden of proof 

 of the justness of discrimination. Since practically all the 

 evidence as to reasonableness of rates or justness of discrimina- 

 tion must, by the nature of the case, be in the possession of the 

 companies, it is difficult to see wherein this is not a fair solution 

 of the problem. It was certainly an improvement upon the 

 solution proposed by State Senator Vaughn, and afterwards 

 adopted in several of the Granger states, of having the schedule 

 of maximum rates enacted by the legislature. The commission 

 was undoubtedly in a better position to draw up an equitable 

 schedule than was the legislature, and a desirable element of 

 flexibility was added by the provision allowing the commission 

 to change or revise the schedules at any time. 



THE STRUGGLE OVER THE LAW or 1873 



This railroad law of 1873, with the exception noted above of 

 the schedule of maximum rates, went into force on July i, 1873. 

 On that day the railroad companies, apparently by a precon- 

 certed arrangement, revised their rates so as to make them 

 conform in general to the provisions of the act relative to dis- 

 crimination; but they did this, not by lowering the high charges 

 at non-competitive points, as had been intended, but by raising 

 the lower rates, in some instances as much as fifty per cent. 2 

 In meeting this move of the railroad companies the commission 

 was at a disadvantage, because its schedule of maximum rates 



1 See Nation, xvi. 249 (April 10, 1873). 



2 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1873, p. 19; Governor's message in Senate 

 Journal, 1874, p. 5; House Journal, 1874, p. 5. See also special report of the rail- 

 road commission in House Journal, 1874, pp. 79-81. Although the new rates were 

 not maintained for any considerable length of time, there appears to have been 

 little discrimination between persons or places after this. Railroad Commission, 

 Reports, 1874, p. 26, 1875, p. 22, 1876, p. 22; Governor's message in Senate Journal, 

 1877, p. 19; House Journal, 1877, p. 3p. 



