Granger Laws

Granger Laws. A major goal of the Granger movement of the early 1870s was to bring about public regulation of railroads.Western farmers, who had applauded the rapid expansion of the rail system, now believed that rates were unreasonably high and fluctuated suspiciously, especially at non‐competitive points. These activist farmers also claimed that rail carriers discriminated between places and persons, formed illegal business combinations, and gave free passes to politicians and others who could serve the railroads’ interests.

As the political power of organized farmers grew in the 1870s, agrarian representatives in the state legislatures, aided by spokesmen for certain business interests, pushed through legislation in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota that collectively were known as the Granger Laws. These laws varied from state to state, but generally they sought to outlaw the widespread abuses by railroads, establish maximum rates in some instances, and create regulatory agencies to administer and enforce the laws. Beyond their immediate importance, the Granger Laws mark an early attempt by a previously rural nation to adjust to the conditions and challenges of an increasingly urban and industrial society.

The railroad corporations either ignored the Granger Laws or fought them in the courts. In due course, a case arising in Illinois found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Munn v. Illinois (1877), the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Granger Laws. Rejecting the contention of a warehouse operator that the regulatory actions of the Illinois Railroad and Warehouse Commission (the agency established to administer the Granger Law in that state) deprived the company of property and thus violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Court ruled instead that enterprises such as railroads and warehouses that substantially affected the public interest had to submit to some degree of public control. This, in turn, opened the way for state regulation of a variety of businesses.

In 1886, the issue of state regulation of railroads again came before the courts. The Wabash railroad, an interstate carrier in the Middle West, appealed a decision of the Illinois courts to the Supreme Court. In Wabash v. Illinois (1886), the Court found for the railroad, ruling that a state could not regulate interstate commerce, since the Constitution granted that power solely to the federal government. This decision led Congress to enact the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. That measure assigned the task of regulating railroads to the newly created Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation's first independent regulatory agency.
See also Agriculture: 1770s to 1890; Gilded Age; Industrialization; Populist Era; Populist Party.

Bibliography

Solon J. Buck , The Granger Movement, 1913.
George H. Miller , Railroads and the Granger Laws, 1971.

Roy V. Scott