Farmers and The Eastern Master

   American farmers wanted to improve their current situation, which they felt was being abused by the “Eastern Master”. At first much of the state, federal, and judicial legislation or decisions had positive affects on the American farmer. However, very quickly this changed to a negative impact on the efforts of the American farmer. However as time went on and progressed into what is known as the progressive era, the American farmer’s position in society started to improve.

The American farmers to discontinue or weaken their dependency upon others, created Granger laws. Granger laws were laws passed in many states dominated by farmers, or states in the west. These laws tried to control railroad rebates, which many times committed short-haul abuse. Short-haul abuse is when a railroad company would give the big shippers rebates so those trying to ship only short distances would have to pay a lot more. These laws were considered legal at first through the Munn vs. Illinois case.  Munn vs. Illinois improved the farmer’s position in society because they were able to stop the monopolistic power of many railroads. This allowed small farmers to be able to ship their goods to markets and not have to pay unfair rates or be victims of short-haul abuse. However, the Granger laws were considered unconstitutional through the Supreme Court case Wabash vs. Illinois later on because railroads were becoming a part of interstate commerce which states could not regulate.  Therefore, the court case Wabash vs. Illinois could be considered an important federal legislation which actually thwarted American farmer’s efforts to improve themselves in their society. As a result of the Wabash vs. Illinois case the ICC or the Interstate Commerce Commission was set up. This commission was aimed at protecting the farmers and various others from being victims of Railroad abuses. However, this five person commission often included railroad company owners and did not have sufficient power to do anything other then to bring railroads to court.  Therefore, this did very little to affect the American Farmers position in society. Then the Sherman Anti-trust Act in 1890 attempted to limit the power of large companies, trusts, and monopolies. However, this Act actually had minimal affect on Farmers because it was largely ineffective, because of the weak powers it contained. Finally in 1903 improvements were made to the ICC, and T.R passed the Elkins Act, which made railroad rebates illegal. This enhanced the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the ICC became even stronger when T.R passed the Hepburn Act in 1906. The Hepburn act set maximum rates for railroads, and spread the power of the ICC to control bridges, ferries, pipelines and other forms of transportation. The final act to increase the power of the ICC in the progressive era would be the Mann-Elkins Act, which gave the ICC the power to change rates and spread their power to telephones and telegraphs too. Overall, the efforts of American farmers to improve their position in society were greatly affected by state, and federal legislation and judicial decisions.