The Contradictions And Battles Between The Farmers And Railroad Companies In The Middle West America Of Late19^th Century

Being an important part of the American farmers’movement in the late19th century, the agrarian discontent firstly occurred in the Middle West where the farmers fought against the high rates and discriminations in the railway co-operations. After the Civil War, the American people safeguarded national unity, and the economy developed rapidly in the process of Industrialization. With the effect of the Westward Movement and the Revolution of the Transportation in America, the Western was transferring into the Modernization as well. In this period, the farmers had to give up the traditional life style which they lived for hundred years and to be drawn into the modern commerce market reluctantly. Nevertheless, it was the time that the lasissez-faire capitalism transfers into the Monopoly Capitalism, while the "panic" of the economic restructuring was mainly embodied in the uncultured agriculture community. The panic of1873was the second-longest American depression which had devastating impact on the whole country. It particularly intensified the contradictions between the conventional farming class and the modern industrial class, which arose in the radical agricultural movements in the American society of late19th century.As a secret order of Patrons of Husbandry with some advantages of free-spoken and strict organization, the Grange was very popular in the Middle West. The Granger Movement called for the reduction and equalization of the railway rates and other anti-monopoly movements for the equal rights of agricultural community. At that time, many agricultural organizations appeared in the country, such as the Farmers’Alliance and the Populist Party. Finally, with the remarkable effort of all the farming class, the states congresses of Middle West passed the railroad laws which empowered the states government to control over railway cooperation for preventing extortion, and the laws were well known as "Granger Laws". The Granger Laws was firstly sufficient to insure the management of railroads in the interests of the public in the America history.Before long, with the further development of economic, the regional connections strengthened so much that the feral government pass the Interstate Commerce Act instead of the Granger Law. The Interstate Commerce Act of1887was designed to regular the monopolistic practice of the railroad industry, and it is the first federal law to regulate the private industry in America as well.As the line, the Grange Movement led the conservative agriculture class striving for their economic rights in the monopoly of the Industrialization in the American history. With the study on the Grange Movement, it emerges the processing of the American Government to solve the contradictions between the farmers and the railway co-operations and the influence on the American society of late19th century.