The farmers had other problems. The farmers in the West were very far from the cities of the East, and further still from Europe. The people who would buy the flour made of the wheat lived far away. The railroads carried the wheat to the cities of the East and to the ports where it could be loaded onto ships to Europe. But the railroads charged very much money for transporting the wheat. The owners of the railroads became very rich by hauling wheat to the East at a time when the farmers worked very hard and got very little money for their crop. At first, the farmers wanted the government to control prices on the railroads. Later, the farmers began to demand that the government own the railroads.