RAILWAY LEGISLATION 173 



The question of the justness of the rates established by the 

 schedule of this act, to the shippers on the one hand and to the 

 railroads on the other, has been the subject of a great deal of 

 dispute. The railroad companies at once declared that the rates 

 were unremunerative, 1 but Senator Larrabee writes that " this 

 law in no case compelled railroad companies to carry freight at 

 a lower rate than they had voluntarily carried it in the past " 

 and that " the average rates fixed by the law were higher than 

 the rates at which the railroads had previously carried a large 

 portion of corresponding freight." 2 The facts seem to be that 

 the legislature, instead of reducing all rates to the level of the 

 lowest competitive rates, as had been attempted in Illinois in 

 1871, had merely endeavored to equalize rates, to strike a rough 

 average between the lowest rates that had prevailed where there 

 was active competition, and the higher rates from non-competi- 

 tive points. 3 It must be remembered, however, that competition 

 was left in full play and would still operate in most cases to 

 prevent roads from raising their low rates to the maxima fixed 

 by the schedule. On the other hand, there was a great deal of 

 complaint, especially from the western part of the state, that 

 the schedule established by the new law operated to the dis- 

 advantage of many shippers. This was probably due in part, 

 however, to the efforts of the railroad companies to make the 

 law as odious as possible. On the whole, it seems that the rail- 

 road commission, established under the law of 1878, was justified 

 in its assertion " that the Tariff Act of 1874 was oppressive and 

 unjust in many respects." 4 



In July, 1874, the president of the Chicago and Northwestern 

 railroad addressed a letter to the governor in which he expressed 

 a firm belief that the law was unconstitutional, but declared 



1 Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, Annual Reports, 1874, p. 20, 1875, P- 26, 

 1876, pi u, 1877, p. 23; Chicago and Northwestern, Annual Reports, 1874, p. 18. 



2 Larrabee, Railroad Question, 332. 



3 See ibid. 322; Dixon, State Railroad Control, 27. 



4 Railroad Commission, Reports, i. 51; Cullom Committee, Report, ii. 945, 958, 

 1002, 1057; Governor Carpenter, in Legislative Documents, 1876, i. no. i, pp. 10-13; 

 Senate Journal, 1876, pp. 157-165; Iowa State Grange, Proceedings, v (1874); 

 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1874, p. 417, 1876, p. 412, 1878, p. 446; Larrabee, 

 Railroad Question, 333-335; Tuttle, Iowa, 369. 



