RAILWAY LEGISLATION 2O$ 



clause applying to all traffic on the same line in the same direc- 

 tion, and rebating was prohibited by the constitution of Georgia. 



Legislation in accordance with these constitutional require- 

 ments followed in most of the states. Here again the influence 

 of the more distinctively Granger legislation of the northwestern 

 states is seen. The West Virginia act of 1873 divided the 

 railroads into classes and established complete schedules of 

 freight rates; l the Arkansas act of 1873, adopted a year before 

 the new constitution went into effect, and the Texas acts of 

 1876, 1879, and 1882 established maximum rates in general 

 terms; and the acts of Georgia in 1879 and Alabama in 1881 

 established railroad commissions with power to regulate rates. 2 

 Although this legislation was influenced indirectly by the 

 Granger movement, the farmers of the South, and more par- 

 ticularly the Patrons of Husbandry, do not, as a rule, seem to 

 have played any considerable part in the movement. 3 Thus the 

 state grange of Texas, at its organization in 1873, declared that 

 it was not antagonistic to railroads but recognized the benefits 

 conferred by them, and later it endeavored to secure congres- 

 sional aid for a Texas and Pacific railway; 4 while the Southern 

 Farmers' Monthly in 1880 advised the farmers of Georgia to 

 keep out of the controversy over railroad legislation in that 

 state. 5 



There are some instances, however, of Grange agitation for 

 railroad regulation in the southern states; in Arkansas, for 

 example, the state grange memorialized the legislature in 1877 



1 This act remained on the statute books for some time, but it is said to have been 

 ineffective. Cullom Committee, Report, i. 134. 



2 Cullom Committee, Report, i. 78-86, 131; Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1879, p. 

 420. For railroad opposition to this legislation, see E. P. Alexander, Reply to 

 Circular No. 19 of the Railroad Commission of Alabama (pamphlet, 1881) and H. S. 

 Haines, The Railroads and the State (pamphlet, 1879). 



3 This conclusion is based upon the examination of a large number of pro- 

 ceedings of southern state granges and southern agricultural papers of the 

 period. 



4 Texas State Grange, Minutes, 7, 10 (October, 1873 and April, 1874), Pro- 

 ceedings, i. n, 28 (1874); National Grange, Proceedings, viii. 85-88 (February, 

 1875); Resolutions of Legislatures, Boards of Trade, State Granges, etc., Favoring 

 Government Aid to the Texas and Pacific Railway (pamphlet, 1874). 



6 Southern Farmers' Monthly (Savannah), Hi. 214 (July, 1880). 



