d in the
railroads' interest were accompanied by notes announcing that free
passes were no longer to be given generally but only to the friends
of the railroads. At the session of the Iowa Legislature in 1872, four
lawyers who posed as farmers and Grange members were well known as
lobbyists for the railroads. The senate paid its respects to these men
at the close of its session by adopting the following resolution:

WHEREAS, There have been constantly in attendance on the Senate and
House of this General Assembly, from the commencement of the session
to the present time, four gentlemen professing to represent the great
agricultural interest of the State of Iowa, known as the Grange; and--

WHEREAS, These gentlemen appear entirely destitute of any visible means
of support; therefore be it--

RESOLVED, By the Senate, the House concurring, that the janitors permit
aforesaid gentlemen to gather up all the waste paper, old newspapers,
&c., from under the desks of the members, and they be allowed one
postage stamp each, The American Agriculturist, What Greeley Knows about
Farming, and that they be permitted to take with them to their homes,
if they have any, all the rejected railroad tariff bills, Beardsley's
speech on female suffrage, Claussen's reply, Kasson's speech on
barnacles, Blakeley's dog bill, Teale's liquor bill, and be given a pass
over the Des Moines Valley Railroad, with the earnest hope that they
will never return to Des Moines.

Once the Granger laws were enacted, the railroads either fought the
laws in court or obeyed them in such a way as to make them appear
most obnoxious to the people, or else they employed both tactics. The
lawsuits, which began as soon as the laws had been passed, dragged on,
in appeal after appeal, until finally they were settled in the Supreme
Court of the United States. These suits were not so numerous as might
be expected, because in most of the States they had to be brought on the
initiative of the injured shipper, and many shippers feared to incur the
animosity of the railroad. A farmer was afraid that, if he angered the
railroad, misfortunes would befall him: his grain might be delivered
to the wrong elevators or left to stand and spoil in damp freight cars;
there might be no cars available for grain just when his shipment was
ready; and machinery destined for him might be delayed at a time when
lack of it would mean the loss of his crops. The railroads for their
part whenev