that it is difficult to account for the motives of
those who provoked and stubbornly prolonged it except upon the theory
that it played an important role in their stock manipulations.

But the recent legislation of a considerable number of States has, in
Prof. Hadley's opinion, been still more detrimental to railroad
interests than that of Congress. He says;

"In the second place, the legislatures of several States,
stimulated by the example of Congress, hastened to pass in
imitation, of the Interstate Commerce Act, laws which, in
many instances, went far beyond their model in point of
stringency. Examples are furnished by the statutes of Iowa,
Maryland, Minnesota and South Carolina in 1887-88; of
Florida in 1888-89, and of no less than thirteen States in
1889-90, viz.: Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio,
Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Wyoming; as well as by
the recently adopted Constitution of Kentucky. The
legislation of 1890-91 shows a slight reaction against the
movement of the three years previous.

"In two respects the State legislatures went quite beyond
the scope of the Interstate Commerce Act. They tried to
prescribe safety appliances to the operating department, and
rates to the traffic department. Of the first of these
groups little need be said, except that as a rule they have
failed to accomplish any great progress toward the result in
view, and have in some instances actually hindered such
progress. The attempt at prescribing rates was more serious.
It involved a return to the methods of the Granger
legislation, fifteen years earlier, which had operated so
disastrously upon the railroads and the public alike. The
system of commissioners with powers to make schedules which
should be at least _prima facie_ evidence of reasonable
rates had, during the intervening period, never been wholly
abandoned; but the powers thus conferred had been sparingly
exercised. It was either left unused, as was generally the
case in the North from 1877 to 1887, or the schedule rates
were put so high as not to interfere with good railroad
economy, of which examples are seen in Georgia and other
parts of the South. But from the year 1887 onward there was
a