Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/182

 $2,000,000; while the heavy expense of carrying on the litigation for nine years had been borne by one hundred and twenty farmers of moderate means. Too much credit cannot be awarded the courageous and public spirited citizens who fought this great battle against an extortion of such magnitude in which the farmers of the entire country were deeply interested. In Minnesota the Legislature made an appropriation of $7,500 to enable the farmers of that State to resist the claim, but in Iowa the entire expense fell upon a few private citizens.

The legal questions involved in the drive well suits were in many respects similar to those raised in the barbed wire contests. The final triumph of the people in both cases was far reaching, as an adverse decision would have enabled the combinations to have extorted for many years, an annual tax upon the farmers of the entire country, that would have reached high up into the millions and gone to enrich a few eastern capitalists.

The Twenty-second General Assembly convened at Des Moines on the 9th of January, 1888, Lieutenant-Governor Hull presiding over the Senate. In the House W. H. Redman was elected Speaker. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were inaugurated for a second term. In his inaugural address Governor Larrabee made a powerful argument for the control of railroad charges by the Legislature. He presented a strong array of facts and figures to fortify his position, showing the gross injustice of the pooling system inaugurated by the railroads, by which territory and business is so divided among the roads, that there is practically no competition as to rates for transportation. The Governor proceeded to say:

“Steel rails can now be purchased for one-third of the price paid for iron rails fifteen years ago; and engines, cars and coal have depreciated in cost nearly as much while local freight and passenger rates have not been reduced in any perceptible degree. The railroads of Iowa have received as donations from various sources a value of over $50,000,000. The tracts of land granted to them by the Nation, State, counties,