290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sighted men of capital and public spirit saw something of what rail- 

 roads were to be, and soon the iron way began to connect the great 

 cities of the Atlantic together, and then these with the interior of the 

 New England and Middle States, until at last the continent has been 

 belted, and the distant mining-camps of the Rocky Mountains, and the 

 broad stretches of the Calif ornian and Texan plains, are directly con- 

 nected with every city and town in the country. A single life covers 

 the entire period which separates the time when stage-coaching and 

 wagoning were the methods of transportation, from to-day, when rail- 

 roads loom up in capital and centralized control as the most important 

 element of American commerce. 



The benefits derived from the railroads have been so great as to 

 have virtually created the population and wealth of some of the wide 

 Western States and Territories. Railroads have opened up homes for 

 millions sent across the sea from overcrowded Europe, have cheapened 

 food, clothing, and shelter, have practically broken down State and 

 sectional lines, and by interfusion of capital and population have done 

 more to weld the Union together than any other influence. The loco- 

 motive has proved a giant indeed, capable of bearing heavy burdens, 

 and accomplishing splendid results ; yet of late railroad corporations 

 have shown a disposition to abuse their strength for public oppression, 

 and the railroad problem is, how this tendency may be best overcome. 



While on all hands the indebtedness of the community to railroad 

 enterprise is gladly acknowledged, and while the average return on 

 railroad investments throughout the country is but three per cent, and 

 the charges generally are lower than elsewhere in the world, yet the 

 complaints made against some of the leading lines are so serious as to 

 have given rise to one of the angriest discussions of the time. 



The chief complaints, of course, have been made against the lucra- 

 tive roads, those which run through thickly-settled regions, like the 

 New York Central ; and against lines which, like the Central Pacific, 

 are monopolies pure and simple. The complaints are of exorbitant 

 charges, of discrimination in favor of individuals, firms, and localities ; 

 that the railroad companies lend themselves to the aggrandizement of 

 monopolies such as the Standard Oil Company, and of minor subsidiary 

 organizations, car, bridge, express, stock-yard, and elevating companies 

 which absorb parasitically profits which should belong to the railway 

 shareholders, and which, if rightfully appropriated, would tend to re- 

 lieve the burdens borne by the general public. The complainants fur- 

 thermore aver that the railroad companies make use of their influence, 

 as employers of large bodies of voters, to corrupt Legislatures and 

 courts that they may remain unpunished in committing acts of fraud 

 and rapacity, and defeat attempts by the State to exert the control 

 which the highest authorities declare to be within its rightful powers. 



To take up these complaints somewhat in detail and beginning 

 with that of exorbitant charges there was provision made in most of 



