RAILWAY LEGISLATION l6l 



panics of Illinois toward the laws enacted by that state in the 

 same year; they denied their validity and refused to make any 

 attempt to conform to their terms. 1 In order to test the law, 

 a suit was brought by the attorney-general against the Winona 

 and St. Peter Company for violation of the rate law, and at the 

 same time a private suit was instituted against the same com- 

 pany to compel it to give up goods held because the owner 

 refused to pay transportation charges in excess of those fixed 

 by the law. The circuit court decided these cases in favor of 

 the railroad, but they were appealed to the supreme court of 

 the state, and there heard together in May, 1873. In its decision 

 the supreme court admitted that a railroad charter was a con- 

 tract under which the company was entitled to collect some 

 tolls, but at the same time upheld the right of the state to regu- 

 late or limit the rate of those tolls. The decisions of the lower 

 courts were therefore reversed. 2 As was to be expected, one of 

 these cases was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, 

 where as Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company v. Blake 

 it was decided along with other Granger cases, in the October 

 term, 1876; the decision being in favor of Blake and thus up- 

 holding the validity of the law of i87i. 3 Before this decision 

 was reached, however, the legislature had superseded that law 

 by another restrictive act, and then had practically given up 

 the attempt to control railroads. 



During the interval of three years in which the law of 1871 

 was nominally in force but was actually a dead letter, the antag- 

 onism toward railroad corporations and the demand for their 

 control by the state continued to grow. 4 The state and local 

 granges kept up a constant agitation of the question 5 and the 



1 Railroad Commissioner, Reports, 1871, p. 10; American Annual Cyclopedia, 

 1872, p. 543- 



2 19 Minnesota, 418, 434 (Gilfillan ed., 362, 377); Railroad Commissioner, 

 Reports, 1871, pp. n, 17, 1873, pp. 241-247; Attorney-general's reports in Executive 

 Documents, 1871, i. 74, 1872, i. 541, 1873, 832-836, Governor's message in ibid., 

 1872, i. 5-10. See also editorial in Nation, xvii. 266 (October 23, 1873). 



3 94 United States, 180. 



4 On the railroad question in the legislature of 1873, see American Annual Cyclo- 

 pedia, 1873, p. 506; Senate Journal, 1873, pp. 24, 34, 38, 86. 



5 Farmers' Union, 1873, January 18, August 9; Chicago Tribune, 1873, May 15, 



