RAILWAY LEGISLATION 17 1 



ments were offered, including a proposition to make the rates 

 prima facie evidence of reasonableness instead of absolute maxima, 

 and another for the establishment of a commission to draw up 

 a schedule of rates. One of the substitutes, which was offered 

 by Senator Rowland, and which proposed to establish an inves- 

 tigating commission to prepare the way for future legislation, 

 was said to have been drafted by the committee appointed by 

 the state grange; but another Senator declared it to be a snare 

 and a delusion and drafted in a railway office. 1 All these prop- 

 ositions were turned down one after another and the original 

 bill as reported by the committee passed the Senate by vote of 

 40 to 8. 2 In the House a substitute for this bill, although 

 embodying the same general features, was passed by vote of 

 93 to 4. The Senate accepted the substitute, with a few minor 

 amendments which were agreed to by the House, and the meas- 

 ure received the approval of the governor and became law on 

 March 23, i874. 3 



This Iowa railroad act of 1874 4 is perhaps the best example 

 of an attempt to establish a fixed schedule of maximum rates 

 and remained unrepealed longer than the similar acts of any 

 of the other states. By sections i and 2 of the act all the rail- 

 roads in the state were divided into three classes on the basis 

 of gross earnings and the maximum passenger fares fixed at 

 three, three and one-half and four cents for the roads in each 



1 A joint resolution had previously been adopted in the Senate by vote of 38 to 

 7 requesting the committee of the state grange to present its railroad bill and such 

 information as it might possess. This was apparently looked upon as reflecting 

 on the grange, for the House, with its preponderance of Patrons, rejected this and 

 another similar resolution by large majorities. Senate Journal, 1874, p. 90; House 

 Journal, 1874, pp. 153, 159, 172. 



2 Senate Journal, 1874, pp. 198-219. See also Chicago Tribune, March n, 



1874, P- 5- 



8 House Journal, 1874, pp. 328, 344-351, 388, 395-405, 440, 44; Senate Journal, 

 1874, pp. 277, 279, 292-295, 305. Over twenty railroad bills of various sorts were 

 introduced in the House. House Journal, 1874, pp. 62, 83, 84, 90, 91, 103, 127, 

 161, 162, 188, 196, 232, 247, 323, 325,341,357,525. 



4 Laws, 1874, ch. Ixviii; Railroad Commission, Reports, i. appendix, cviii-cxx. 

 For summaries of the law, see Dixon, State Railroad Control, 26; Commissioner 

 McDill, in Cullom Committee, Report on Interstate Commerce, ii. 944; American 

 Annual Cyclopedia, 1874, p. 416. 



