150 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



could not be made use of until January 15, 1874. The outcry 

 was so great, however, that the commission determined to bring 

 suits for extortion, relying upon the rather vague terms of 

 section i of the law. Two suits were thus instituted in December, 

 1873, against the Chicago and Northwestern and the Illinois 

 Central railroads. The latter of these was soon dismissed, 

 the commission preferring to institute other suits against the 

 same company after the schedules went into effect; the former 

 was continued for some time and finally dismissed after a decision 

 of the supreme court in another case, 1 to the effect that the 

 schedules were essential to any prosecution for extortion under 

 the act. 2 



The commissioners, meanwhile, had been at work upon the 

 preparation of the schedules. After extensive investigations, 

 in the course of which careful comparisons of the published 

 tariffs of the railroad companies were made and testimony 

 received from well-informed shippers from all parts of the state, 

 the roads of the state were divided into five classes, and a com- 

 plete schedule of rates drawn up for the roads in each class. 

 In determining these rates, the commission stated that it had 

 taken into consideration such subjects as the amount of capital 

 invested in the road, the amount of business done, and the pro- 

 portion of operating expenses to gross earnings. 3 When the 

 day arrived for the schedules to go into effect, no attention 

 appears to have been paid to them by the railroad companies, 

 they having evidently determined to fight the issue to a finish 

 in the courts. As a consequence, ten suits for extortion were 

 brought against four different railroads by the commission 

 during 1874. Two of these suits, both against the Chicago, 

 Burlington, and Quincy, were decided by the circuit courts in 

 September, 1874, and judgments rendered for the people, but 

 the cases were immediately appealed to the supreme court. 

 One of these cases was heard in the January term, 1875, the 



1 Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company . The People. 7 7 Illinois, 



443- 



2 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1873, p. 28, 1874, pp. 8-10, 1875, p. 17. 



3 Ibid., 1873, p. 28. See also ibid., 1874, pp. 21-24, 370-394. 



