had been based
on facts. There had been, however, no expression of public
dissatisfaction during the campaign preceding the session of the General
Assembly. There were doubtless individuals and even communities to whom
the law had been made so odious that they felt they had but little to
lose by a change, but the masses of the people believed that the law was
based upon just principles and desired its perfection rather than its
repeal. As to the claim that railroad construction had been checked by
hostile legislation, statistics prove that during the five years
following the great panic of 1873 Iowa fared no worse in this respect
than her sister States east, west or south.

The arguments produced by the railroad managers no doubt influenced some
members of the General Assembly; by far the greater number of them,
however, realised that the failure of the law to bring the expected
relief was not due so much to its own imperfections as to the absence of
a power to enforce it. The writer, with others, was convinced that a
strong and conscientious commission would be a much more potent agency
to secure reasonable rates for the shipper than a maximum tariff law
without proper provisions for its efficient enforcement; they, in short,
preferred a commission without a tariff law to a tariff law without a
commission. The question became the subject of many animated debates in
both houses of the General Assembly, but the commissioner system at last
prevailed. The act establishing a Board of Railroad Commissioners, and
defining their duties, was approved on the 23rd of March, 1878, and went
into force a few days later. The act empowered the commission to
exercise a general supervision over all railroads operated in the State,
to inquire into any neglect or violation of the laws of the State by any
railroad corporation or its officers or employes, to examine the books
and documents of any corporation, to investigate complaints of shippers
that unreasonable charges had been made by railroad companies, and to
modify any charge which they might deem unreasonable. It was also made
the commissioners' duty to make an annual report to the Governor
disclosing the working of the railroad system in the State, the officers
of each company being required to make annual returns to the board for
this purpose.

Though the enactment of this law was a surprise to the people, they
accepted it in good cheer, and determined to give it an honest trial