io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



power to secure publicity ; it is perhaps the most encouraging exam- 

 ple in recent history of the power of government by public opinion. 



Whether a national commission could work successfully in this 

 way is very doubtful. The public opinion of the nation as a whole 

 is not so easily brought to bear in any one direction as is that of a 

 single State. The national railroad system is too vast, the interests of 

 different sections too conflicting. It is desirable that a national com- 

 mission should be charged with the enforcement of certain specific 

 provisions against discrimination. It would be a herculean task ; but 

 it is one which needs to be done, and one which we may feel reason- 

 ably sure that the courts could not even attempt to do. 



On the other hand, it is desirable that the commission should not be 

 a mere prosecuting body, but should depend for its force upon the in- 

 fluence of public opinion behind it. In this respect, the bill now be- 

 fore the United States Senate is a good one. It avoids alike the error 

 of those who would give the commission no definite authority, and 

 those who would charge it with doing what is actually impossible. 

 The bill, as reported, rigidly prohibits personal discrimination, and 

 generally prohibits local discrimination ; but under this latter head it 

 empowers the commission to make exceptions. It says nothing about 

 pools ; and, if this discreet silence is maintained, such a commission 

 might readily use pools as a means of protecting the shipper against 

 discrimination, instead of allowing them to be used solely for the pur- 

 poses of the railroad investors and managers. 



The great danger is, that the bill is too moderate to pass. In spite 

 of all that has been said and written on railroad questions, the great 

 majority of men are extremists on this subject. Some want an abso- 

 lute let-alone policy ; some want an energetic attempt at control 

 which would really defeat its own ends. Both of these classes are op- 

 posed to a bill of this kind. The advocates of the let-alone policy are 

 afraid that it would be enforced. The advocates of vigorous control 

 are afraid that it would stand in the way of more decisive action. 

 They feel and not altogether without reason that the prolonged ab- 

 sence of national control may ultimately bring the question of govern- 

 ment ownership in the foreground. 



It must be remembered that a very considerable portion of the 

 community believes in government railroad ownership, at least as an 

 ideal. They perhaps exaggerate the evils of the present system, and 

 certainly have the most unreasonable expectations of the good to be 

 obtained from a change. It has been seriously argued with much 

 show of figures, in a reputable working-men's paper, that it is possible 

 to carry passengers from New York to San Francisco at a dollar apiece 

 and make money on it, and that everything above this represents sheer 

 extortion, which would be avoided by government ownership ! Now, 

 as long as these things are believed, their absurdity makes them none 

 the less dangerous. In forecasting the future, we must reckon with 



