"In the second place, the legislatures of several States, stimulated by the example of Congress, hastened to pass in imitation, of the Interstate Commerce Act, laws which, in many instances, went far beyond their model in point of stringency. Examples are furnished by the statutes of Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota and South Carolina in 1887-88; of Florida in 1888-89, and of no less than thirteen States in 1889-90, viz.: Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Wyoming; as well as by the recently adopted Constitution of Kentucky. The legislation of 1890-91 shows a slight reaction against the movement of the three years previous. "In two respects the State legislatures went quite beyond the scope of the Interstate Commerce Act. They tried to prescribe safety appliances to the operating department, and rates to the traffic department. Of the first of these groups little need be said, except that as a rule they have failed to accomplish any great progress toward the result in view, and have in some instances actually hindered such progress. The attempt at prescribing rates was more serious. It involved a return to the methods of the Granger legislation, fifteen years earlier, which had operated so disastrously upon the railroads and the public alike. The system of commissioners with powers to make schedules which should be at least _prima facie_ evidence of reasonable rates had, during the intervening period, never been wholly abandoned; but the powers thus conferred had been sparingly exercised. It was either left unused, as was generally the case in the North from 1877 to 1887, or the schedule rates were put so high as not to interfere with good railroad economy, of which examples are seen in Georgia and other parts of the South. But from the year 1887 onward there was a pressure upon the Commissioners to make schedules, and to make them low; and lest these boards should not be able to reflect the popular feeling directly enough, they were, in some instances, no longer to be appointed by the Governor, but elected by popular vote. The law which was most severely applied and attracted most public attention was that of Iowa.... The agitation against the railroads has many points in common with the land agitation in Ireland. Absentee ownership is at the bottom of the trouble in either case. Property is owned in one place and used in another, and the users, not satisfied with the conditions of use, insist on taking the business direction into their own hands. They claim the right to fix rates in Iowa for the same general reasons by which they claim the right to fix rents in