2l6 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



discrimination in favor of or against particular persons or places." 

 None of these bills was reported by the committee to which it 

 was referred. 



Meanwhile the agitation for state control of railways, which 

 came later to be known as the Granger movement, had been 

 getting under way in the West and had already produced the 

 radical provisions of the Illinois constitution of 1870, and the 

 Illinois and Minnesota laws of 187 1. 1 The newspapers and 

 magazines began to be filled with articles discussing the abuses 

 which had appeared in railroad construction and management; 

 and the opinion grew that there was a railroad problem to be 

 solved and that the federal government should aid in its solution. 

 The aspect of the problem which attracted the most attention 

 at this time was that of securing cheap transportation to the 

 eastern markets for the products of the western farmers; 2 

 and, as it was quite generally believed that insufficient facilities 

 and lack of competition were the causes of the prevalent high 

 rates, the duty of Congress seemed to many to be to construct 

 or aid in the construction of additional canals and trunk rail- 

 roads from the Mississippi River to the seaboard. 



President Grant in his annual message of December, 1872^ 

 called attention to the fact that " various enterprises for the 

 more certain and cheaper transportation of the constantly 

 increasing Western and Southwestern products to the Atlantic 

 seaboard " would come before Congress at that session, and 

 recommended the appointment of a committee to gather infor- 

 mation on the subject. In the House an attempt was made 

 to authorize the appointment by the president of a commission 

 of three members to collect information concerning interstate 

 railroads. 4 It was proposed that this commission should inves- 

 tigate the earnings, expenditures, rates of charge, and operations 



1 See above, pp. 123-205. 



2 Cf. Johnson, American Railway Transportation, 367; James, The Agitation 

 for Federal Regulation, 34. See also, Martin, Grange Movement (published in 

 1874). 



3 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents , vii. 195. 



4 House Journal, 42 Congress, 3 session, 263, 266, 275, 302; Congressional Globe, 

 893> I057- 



