152 TEE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



upon it the right to fix charges. 1 Nearly four years before, 

 the Supreme Court of the United States had sustained similar 

 legislation in the case of Munn v. Illinois and several other 

 " Granger cases " from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; 2 and 

 two years before the supreme court of the state, in the Neal 

 Ruggles case, had sustained the law of 1871 regulating passenger 

 fares, a law which had been repealed in 1873. 3 The railroad 

 companies, nevertheless, refused to conform their charges 

 entirely to the schedules of the board until after the final deci- 

 sion on the law of 1873 by the state supreme court. 4 In the 

 meantime, the commission declined to institute further pro- 

 ceedings against the companies while the test case was still 

 undecided. 5 



After the decision, there appears to have been no further 

 difficulty over the enforcement of the law; 6 the natural develop- 

 ment of business had of itself brought the charges below the 

 maxima in the schedules in most cases, for these schedules were 

 not revised from their promulgation in 1873 until 1881; and the 

 violent agitations and frantic demands for lower rates which 

 had characterized the first half of the decade had now almost 

 entirely disappeared, in large part perhaps because of the gradual 

 revival of prosperity. These conditions made it possible for 

 the railroads and the commissioners to get along peaceably 

 for the most part, after 1880; the board serving to prevent 



1 95 Illinois, 313. See also Railroad Commission, Reports, 1875, p. 17, 1876, 

 p. 27, 1877, p. xix, 1878, p. xviii, 1879, P- *xv, 1880, pp. 19, 556. 



2 Ibid., 1877, pp. 6-27; 94 United States, 113 et seq.; Gordon, Illinois Railway 

 Legislation, 54. 



3 91 Illinois, 256; Gordon, Illinois Railway Legislation, 36, 54; Railroad Com- 

 mission, Reports, 1879, PP- xxv* 306-312. The law was not specifically repealed 

 until the adoption of the revised statutes in 1874; but it was superseded by the 

 railroad law of 1873. Revised Statutes, 1874, p. 1044. 



4 Governor's message in Senate Journal, 1877, p. 19; House Journal, 1877, p. 30. 

 6 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1876, p. 27. 



6 Although the law was so worded as to apply to interstate as well as intra-state 

 traffic, little attempt was made to enforce it except with regard to business wholly 

 within the state. The United States Supreme Court decisions were ultimately 

 adverse to the right of the state to exercise any control over interstate traffic. 

 Railroad Commission, Reports, 1875, p. 19; Wabash v. Illinois, 118 United States, 

 557. See below, p. 212. 



