202 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



passenger fares to three cents per mile. 1 The farmers were not 

 satisfied with this and in January, 1874, the state grange de- 

 manded " such legislation as will . . . compel all railroad 

 companies to carry passengers and freight at reasonable uniform 

 rates." 2 No response was made by the legislature to this 

 demand, and the Grange does not appear to have been a factor 

 of considerable importance in securing any of the Michigan 

 railway legislation. 



In the states of the South the railroad enactments of the 

 period seem to have been, for the most part, reflections of the 

 Granger enactments of the northwestern states rather than the 

 results of internal agitation. Besides Missouri, which has 

 already been considered, seven southern states adopted new 

 constitutions during the years iSyi-So. 3 These states were 

 Alabama, 1875; Arkansas, 1874; Georgia, 1877; Louisiana, 

 1879; North Carolina, 1876; Texas, 1876; and West Virginia, 

 1872; and in all but two of the new constitutions those of 

 North Carolina and Louisiana the influence of the Illinois 

 constitution and the other railroad enactments of the north- 

 western states is clearly discernible. Most of these constitutions, 

 and this includes that of Louisiana also, declare railroads to be 

 public highways, and the companies common carriers, but the 

 most distinctively Granger sections are those which make it 

 the duty of the legislatures to pass laws to regulate freight and 

 passenger charges and to prevent discriminations. Mandatory 

 provisions of this sort are found in every one of the five con- 

 stitutions. In addition, the constitutions of Alabama, Texas, 

 and West Virginia forbade the consolidation of parallel or 

 competing lines, 4 and those of Alabama and Arkansas contained 

 provisions against the issuance of free passes to public officials. 

 The constitution of Arkansas also contained a " short haul " 



1 Cullom Committee, Report, i. appendix, 34-36; Iowa Railroad Commission, 

 Reports, 1878, p. 53; Michigan Railroad Commission, Reports, 1873, et seq. 



2 Michigan State Grange, Proceedings, i. 31 (1874). See also ibid. ii. 31, vi 

 (1875, 1878). 



* For these constitutions, see Thorpe, Constitutions. 



* In the case of West Virginia this was permitted with the consent of the legis- 

 lature. 



