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1941 Wis. L. Rev. 343 (1941)
Supreme Court Justice Appointments: II

handle is hein.journals/wlr1941 and id is 355 raw text is: SUPREME COURT JUSTICE APPOINTMENTS: 1I JOHN P. FRANK A new judicial order had its foundations in the tremendous in- dustrial and economic changes of the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. Those changes are reflected in a contrast of railroad ex- pansion and agricultural depression. Railroad mileage increased from 30,000 in 1860 to 93,000 in 1880 and 166,000 in 1890,1 while farm profits dropped to the vanishing point. The financial collapse of 1873, like those of 1893 and 1933, followed an agricultural depression of many years standing and mortgage burdens increased as farm prices went down. High and discriminatory freight rates gave the farmers a readily identifiable enemy, and the agrarian-railroad clash of the Seventies was accentuated by the passing of the frontier. This process, which was completed by 1890, removed the safety valve from the economic machine. By 1870 the day was rapidly approaching when cheap land in the West would no longer afford an opportunity for the economic derelicts. Great areas of land had passed into railroad hands; 35 million acres had been given them by 1873 and 145 million acres more were promised to the transcontinental railroads alone.2 The simultaneous development of railroad empires, manufactur- ing monopolies and farm poverty was accompanied by a growth of widespread political movements based on class interests. For example, in 1867 a handful of government clerks in Washington founded the Patrons of Husbandry, commonly called the Grange, and by 1874 the organization had 500,000 members.3 The Grangers caused the enactment of state legislation to improve the economic condition of farmers, and national parties with similar purposes tried to follow suit. The Labor Reform party began in 1872, the Greenbackers had national candidates from 1876 to 1884, the United Laborites were active in 1888, and the Socialists and Populists had their first na- tional candidates in 1892. In 1878 Greenback candidates received over a million votes in the Congressional elections and in 1892 1 Frankfurter and Landis, The Business of the Supreme Court (1927) 56. 'Buck, The Agrarian Crusade, 23. 'For discussion of the development of the Grange, see Buck, op. cit. supra note 2, at 4.

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