2l8 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



That the time was ripe for this investigation was evident 

 from the attention which the railroad question was attracting 

 in 1873. The Granger movement was then at its height in 

 the western states and the organizations which had been agitating 

 for state legislation were beginning to call for action by the 

 federal government as well. Thus the National Grange, at 

 its first delegate session in 1873, established a committee on 

 transportation and cooperation and in the next month the 

 Iowa State Grange resolved to petition Congress " to regulate 

 without delay, by a just and equitable law, the freights and 

 fares of all railroads within the United States." 1 The governors 

 of both Minnesota and Missouri in messages to the legislatures 

 early in 1873 recognized the inadequacy of state legislation 

 to control railroads and recommended that Congress be me- 

 morialized to assist by regulating commerce among the several 

 states. 2 In the legislature of Illinois a joint resolution was 

 adopted instructing the Senators and requesting the Repre- 

 sentatives to work for a law regulating interstate commerce 

 on railroads. 3 In Iowa, also, a similar resolution was adopted 

 by the legislature, after being amended to reserve the right of 

 the state to regulate rates within its borders. 4 



Besides these calls from the West for federal action on the 

 railroad question, there were a number of movements of more 

 national scope under way in 1873, which had " cheap trans- 

 portation " among their objects. Of these, the most important 

 was the National Cheap Transportation Association organized 

 in New York City, May 6 and 7, i873. 5 Delegates are said 

 to have been present at this meeting from Illinois, Iowa, Mich- 

 igan, and Indiana, and other states of the Mississippi Valley, as 

 well as from most of the eastern states. The purpose of the 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, vi. 10, 20; Prairie Farmer, xliv. 51 (February 



15, 1873). 



2 Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1872, i. 5-10; American Annual Cyclopedia^ 



1873, P- 519- 



3 Illinois, Public Laws, 1873-74, p. 152. 



4 Iowa, Senate Journal, 1873, PP- 2 9> 48~5 I > 74- 



6 Periam, The Groundswell, 317-326; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1873, pp. 

 547, 754", Nation, xvi. 329, 383 (May 18, June 5, 1873); Prairie Farmer, xliv. 155 

 (May 17, 1873); Industrial Age, August 20, 1873, P- 7- 



