Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/185

 enforced as well as others and it is the duty of the Legislature to provide the means. The authority of the Legislature in these matters is no longer a subject of dispute. The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States settles that question on grounds so broad and just as to make it impregnable and final. … With this powerful support it only remains for the friends of good government and law and order in Iowa to press patiently, yet resolutely, forward with this great reform until the saloon and all illegal manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors are utterly destroyed. Such amendments should be made to the law as are needed and best calculated to make it thoroughly effective in accomplishing its purpose."

Fortified by the determined stand taken by Governor Larrabee in his message and inaugural, for legislative control of railroads, the General Assembly at once proceeded to grapple with the subject in a most vigorous manner. A bill was carefully framed to meet the abuses so long suffered by the public and to provide adequate remedies. The Commissioners were given power to fix schedules of charges for transportation and ample authority to enforce their mandates. Under this bill the Railroad Commissioners were clothed with power to protect the people from all of the oppressions of the corporations which had been for years the subject of complaint and for which no remedy by law had been provided. The bill met with the most determined opposition from the railroad officials and all of the personal and political influence it was possible for them to command, at every stage of its progress. But for the first time since the famous Grange legislation these corporations found an organization equal to their own. It could not be circumvented, intimidated nor beaten. It was active, aggressive, intelligent and uncompromising. It was sustained by a large majority of the people and in the end succeeded in placing on the statute books a series of acts which provided ample remedies for most of the wrongs perpetrated by the railroad managers and at the same time deprived them of no rights of property.

The repeal of the Grange Legislation by the General