48 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



passenger tariffs on the different railroads in this 

 State." The legislature at its next session appears 

 to have made an honest attempt to obey these in- 

 structions. One act established maximum passen- 

 ger fares varying from two and one-half to five and 

 one-half cents a mile for the different classes into 

 which the roads were divided. Another provided, 

 in effect, that freight charges should be based en- 

 tirely upon distance traversed and prohibited any 

 increases over rates in 1870. This amounted to an 

 attempt to force all rates to the level of the lowest 

 competitive rates of that year. Finally, a third 

 act established a board of railroad and warehouse 

 commissioners charged with the enforcement of 

 these and other laws and with the collection of 

 information. 



The railroad companies, denying the right of the 

 State to regulate their business, flatly refused to 

 obey the laws; and the state supreme court de- 

 clared the act regulating freight rates unconstitu- 

 tional on the ground that it attempted to prevent 

 not only unjust discrimination but any discrimi- 

 nation at all. The legislature then passed the Act 

 of 1873, which avoided the constitutional pitfall 

 by providing that discriminatory rates should be 

 considered as prima facie but not absolute evidence 



