Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/95

 of any stock or bonds by any railway company, except the same is in good faith paid for in money or other valuable consideration.

Third. Prohibiting railroad companies from issuing free passes, or passes at a discount from the uniform rate to any person residing in this State and holding any office of trust, honor or profit under or by virtue of any of the laws of the State.

Fourth. Prohibiting railroad companies from granting or giving to any of its officers any special privileges in carrying passengers or freight by express or otherwise, over their respective lines of roads.

Fifth. Regulating and taxing railroads and railroad property as the property of others.”

These resolutions which were sent to the committee on railroads represented the growing radical sentiment of the people who demanded the right to control these corporations; and they brought up for discussion and action the whole subject of legislative regulation of railroads. It became the absorbing topic before this General Assembly as it had for several years been before the Granges. The representatives of the corporations came to the Capital in force and used all of their persuasive and argumentative skill to defeat radical legislation and were partially successful; but, after a long and stubbornly contested struggle, the advocates of legislative control won a substantial victory. With the powerful aid of the Granges, long working for the education of the farmers on these lines, and a declaration of both political parties for legislative control of railroads, a majority of both branches was able to agree upon the Campbell bill which was passed, accomplishing one of the reforms, in many respects the most important.

Much time and work had been devoted to the framing of this bill to make it effective and to keep its requirements in harmony with well defined constitutional limits.

The principal features of the law were as follows: the fixing of reasonable maximum rates for the transportation of freight and passengers on the different railroads of the State; the provisions of the act to fix the maximum rate for passenger fare at from three to four cents per