When the roads refused to conform to the law of 1871 it became the duty of the attorney-general to bring suit for forfeiture of charters, the prescribed penalty for disobedience. John D. Blake and others sued the Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company in the district court of Olmstead County, alleging that said corporation had exacted for a certain service one dollar and ninety-nine cents, whereas the statute had determined the sum of fifty-seven cents to be the reasonable maximum charge. This court held, with the defending company, that the legislature had no power under the constitution to fix and determine railroad rates. The state intervened and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Minnesota, which reversed the decision of the court below, thus sustaining the validity of the act of 1871. The case was then carried to the Supreme Court of the United States and was numbered among the well-known “granger cases,” held under consideration for four years and disposed of according to the principles laid down by that court in the case of Munn _vs._ Illinois. In the “Blake case,” decided in October, 1876, it was held that the legislature of Minnesota was within its constitutional powers in regulating and fixing railroad rates and charges and prescribing penalties for violations of her laws in that behalf.
In this interval the prostrated and nearly bankrupt corporations were in no condition to conduct themselves offensively. In 1874 a state board of three railroad commissioners was created. Mr. Edgerton was retained as a member, with Ex-Governor Marshall as one of his colleagues. Under their powers they made and published a complete schedule of reasonable maximum fares and rates according to distances, and reported at the close of the year a general and substantial compliance on the part of the companies. Their representatives showed such good nature and made such fair showing of their meagre profits that the commissioners found good reason to allow them all they could reasonably claim. This led to the suggestion that the commissioners had been deluded or corrupted by the smart and able railroad men. The next legislature (1875) accordingly replaced them with a single commissioner to be chosen by the electors, with such meagre powers as to justify a guess that some ingenious railroad attorney drafted the bill. Ex-Governor Marshall held the office for six years, discharging the duties with admirable discretion.