Defeated in the courts, the railroad managers now endeavored to make odious the new law which deprived them of the power to manipulate railroad interests to their personal advantage. By complying with only part of its letter and none of its spirit, they contrived to create hardships for certain interests and localities. Instead of charging in all cases reasonable rates, as the spirit of the law demanded, they would frequently charge the maximum rates permitted under the law, and when they by this practice succeeded in damaging certain interests, they would point to the Granger law as the source of all existing railroad evils. So, likewise, when they were asked by their patrons to reduce a high rate, they would plead the legislative schedule in excuse of their failure to comply with the request. When the legislature of 1878 convened, the railroad managers appeared before it and pleaded submissively for a repeal of the Granger law and the establishment of a commissioner system. They claimed that they were ready and willing to submit to all reasonable regulation, but that a maximum tariff law was prejudicial both to the best interests of the roads and those of the public. They further asserted that the people had grown tired of this manner of regulating railroad charges and earnestly desired a change of policy; that the interference of the State with the railroad business had injuriously affected certain industrial interests and had greatly retarded railroad construction by driving capital and promoters of railroad enterprises from the State. These statements would indeed have argued strongly in favor of a repeal of the law if they had been based on facts. There had been, however, no expression of public dissatisfaction during the campaign preceding the session of the General Assembly. There were doubtless individuals and even communities to whom the law had been made so odious that they felt they had but little to lose by a change, but the masses of the people believed that the law was based upon just principles and desired its perfection rather than its repeal. As to the claim that railroad construction had been checked by hostile legislation, statistics prove that during the five years following the great panic of 1873 Iowa fared no worse in this respect than her sister States east, west or south.