46 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



Railway companies, many jurists argued, were pri- 

 vate concerns transacting business according to the 

 laws of the State and no more to be controlled in 

 making rates than dry goods companies in fixing 

 the price of spools of thread; rates, like the price of 

 merchandise, were determined by the volume of 

 trade and the amount of competition, and for a 

 State to interfere with them was nothing less than 

 tyranny. On the other hand, those who advocated 

 regulation argued that railroads, though private 

 corporations, were from the nature of their busi- 

 ness public servants and, as such, should be subject 

 to state regulation and control. 



Some States, foreseeing difficulties which might 

 arise later from the doctrine that a charter is a con- 

 tract, as set forth by the United States Supreme 

 Court in the famous Dartmouth College case, * had 

 quite early in their history attempted to safeguard 

 their right to legislate concerning corporations. A 

 clause had been inserted in the state constitution 

 of Wisconsin which declared that all laws creating 

 corporations might at any time be altered or re- 

 pealed by the legislatures. The constitution of 

 Minnesota asserted specifically that the railroads, 



1 See John Marshall and the Constitution, by Edward S. Corwin (in 

 The Chronicles of America), p. 154 S. 



