These papers, attempting to disguise the motives that prompted them to come to the defense of the Wall Street interest, affected the position of disinterested and impartial observers. They condemned the proposed measures as wild and socialistic, and they painted in dark colors the disasters to railroad property, the injustice to its owners, and misfortunes to the people of Iowa, that would follow their adoption. Especially did they bewail the losses that would fall upon the widows and orphans who had confidingly invested all of their hard earnings in this property.
They never uttered a word of condemnation, but entirely ignored or defended the abuses by which the stockholders were robbed at one end of the line and the patrons were imposed on at the other.
Many of these papers were notified that their statements were altogether erroneous, but they would not admit a line to their columns in relation to the matter that indicated any other disposition than complete subserviency to the interests of Wall Street.
There were, however, an unusual number of strong men in this General Assembly, and this extraordinary display of railroad forces only tended to impress more strongly upon them the necessity of curbing the railroad power, and their best energies were concentrated upon the subject, with a firm determination to deal with it in a manner dictated by reason and experience.
So well did the bill which was finally adopted by the committee reflect the general sentiment of the members of the General Assembly that not a single vote was cast against it in either house upon its final passage. Since the adjustment of business under this law, there has been less friction between the people and the railroads than before for thirty years, and so satisfactory has it proved to all that no one, not even a railroad man, has to this day asked the legislature to repeal the law or any part of it. The act contains no new principle of railroad control. By far the greater part of its provisions were taken from the old law. Nearly every one of its features may be found either in the Interstate Commerce Act or upon the statute books of other States. It provides that charges must be reasonable and just, that no undue preference or advantage shall be given to any railroad patron, and that equal facilities for interchange of traffic shall be given to all roads; it prohibits pooling, a greater charge for a shorter than longer haul, the shorter or any portion of it being included in the longer, and discrimination against any shipping point. It requires that schedules of rates and fares shall be printed and kept for public inspection, and that no advance shall be made in rates or fares once established except after ten days' public notice; and it empowers the Board of Railroad Commissioners to make and revise schedules for railroads, the rates contained in such schedules to be received and held in all suits as prima facie reasonable maximum rates. The act further provides penalties and means of enforcement.
It must not be supposed that by the passage of this act the legislature disclaimed the right to fix absolute rates; it simply chose this expedient because in the present tentative stage of rate regulation it seemed most efficient.
There has been much misunderstanding concerning the Iowa law. Many suppose that the Iowa commissioners have power to make confiscatory rates for the railroads, while in fact they can only name maximum rates which shall be deemed and taken in all courts of the State as prima facie evidence that they are reasonable and just maximum rates until the railroads show that they are not. They are at liberty to go into court any day and show this, if they are able. They are, however, careful not to undertake it, for no one knows better than they do that the rates fixed by the commissioners are liberal for the railroads.
There are nine States, besides Iowa, in which the power to fix rates has been conferred upon railroad commissioners. This feature of the law was therefore far from being a novel one, yet no provision of the act was, previous to its passage, so furiously opposed, or subsequent to it so stubbornly resisted as this. Railroad managers realized that a surrender of the right to make their own rates was virtually a surrender of the power to practice abuses.
Soon after the passage of the law the commissioners commenced the work of preparing schedules of the rates for the roads. They endeavored to do justice to both the railroad companies and their patrons by affording a fair compensation to the former and at the same time giving relief to the depressed interests represented by the latter. Their rates were not as low as the special rates that had at various times been granted to favorite shippers, but were a fair average of the various rates in vogue at the time. While the schedule was under consideration, the railroad managers were given frequent hearings, in which they endeavored to impress their views upon the commissioners and to obtain many important concessions, which they urged as essential to the welfare of the railroad interests. Their views guided the commission to such an extent that it was generally supposed that the schedule as finally adopted would be accepted by the railroad companies without protest.
The schedule of the Iowa commission has been sharply criticised by Mr. Stickney in his "Railway Problem." He finds in it inconsistencies and confusion, due, as he charges, to faulty mathematics. But it is claimed by the commission, and Mr. Stickney should know, that whenever mathematics were ignored in the construction of the schedule it was done at the earnest and persistent solicitation of the railroad managers, who, it seems, were more interested in maintaining their interstate rates than in the consistency of the Iowa schedule.