Brewer would grant whatever the railroad companies might ask in this behalf. I told him that he had a duty to perform as a public officer, in my opinion, and if the Commissioners did their duty in making the proper resistance to this new application, the responsibility would rest with Judge Brewer if he failed in his duty. We accordingly made the necessary preparation for a hearing, which was finally had at St. Paul, Minnesota. In the argument of this case the attorneys for the three railroads applying for the injunction made a very formidable array of distinguished counsel embracing the ablest lawyers of Chicago and Milwaukee. A. J. Baker was then Attorney General of the state of Iowa and nominally appeared with me for the Commissioners, but gave me no assistance whatever. We had for an audience in the argument of the case many leading men of Minnesota, members of the State Grange of that state, which association was then in session at St. Paul. I took into the court-room a blackboard that I extemporized for the occasion and taking several copies of the official reports of the railroads in question, I put one copy in the hands of Justice Brewer, holding another copy in my hand and putting the figures upon the blackboard, showing the earnings of these railroads and what they were pleased to call their fixed charges, and demonstrating beyond question that the complaints made of the proposed railroad rates were without foundation. The same person who had made an affidavit in regard to the difference between the Illinois and the western classification had made a new affidavit stating that there was an error in his former computation. I criticised with some severity the reliability of the affidavits in which mistakes occurred according to the convenience and exigencies of this litigation. I had not much confidence in the result, however, but I felt quite complimented when a number of the leading men of the Minnesota Grange, who were present at the argument, made me a complimentary visit at the hotel that evening. The attorney for the railroad company who was expected to make the closing argument in the case complained that he did not feel very well and only spoke about fifteen or twenty minutes in a general way, without going into the facts or figures in the case. My supposed assistant, the Attorney General of the state of Iowa, took no part in the argument, and on my way home that night I learned that he had been in conference with Mr. Stickney of the Chicago Great Western Railroad Company, and had made an arrangement with that gentleman for employment as attorney for that corporation, to take effect at the close of his then official term which was to occur in a few months. On the 2nd day of the ensuing February, 1889, Justice Brewer filed in the circuit court his opinion refusing the injunction on the supplemental bill and entering an order dissolving the injunctions theretofore granted, at the cost of the complainants.