mile, regulated by the class under which the road is placed by the Executive Council; roads to be classified on the basis of their earnings; a schedule fixed giving the maximum rate to be charged for freight by each of the four classes of roads; reports of railroad officers required to be made during the month of January of each year showing the earnings of the different roads which shall govern the classification; a penalty of one hundred dollars per day for failure of any road to make such report; no railroad company to be permitted to charge any person or company for transportation of any property a greater than it shall at the same time charge any other person or company for like services and upon like conditions.
A number of railroad companies notified Governor Carpenter that, while the companies denied the justice and constitutionality of this act, they were disposed to subject it to the test of actual experiment, before assailing it in the courts. If an actual experiment should demonstrate that the continual observance of these schedules would not result in total or partial confiscation, it might not be necessary to raise any question as to the validity of the act. If such observance were found to involve the permanent surrender of the revenues to which the company was entitled from the operation of its lines, a different policy would be adopted, with a view of securing such revenue; and any attempt to enforce the act, as a valid law, would be resisted in the proper tribunal.
Lafayette Young, Senator from the Cass District, was chairman of the Senate railroad committee and an influential friend of railroad control. Senators Shane and John P. West of Henry County did good service in support of the “Grange” legislation. In the House, John Q. Tufts of Cedar County led the friends of the bill, assisted by Lemuel R. Bolter of Harrison and John G. Newbold of Henry County.
The Legislature made an appropriation of $50,000 to aid the destitute people of the northwestern counties
