The reason why political reforms on the railroad failed was because of several reasons. The first reason was that the railroad's goal of gaining control over reform leaders and movements. Like how they dealt with Newton Booth, a Republican who wanted to impose fares and freight rates on the railroads (pg. 237; p. 1). The railroad did something that made Booth their "most important friend" when he was a US Senate. The other reason was the economic distress of 1890s, which made people think that both Democrats and Republicans were morally bankrupt. That was when people began to look at third political parties like the Nationalist party or the People's (aka Populist) party (pg. 238; p.4). And the final reason was their previous struggles with
