294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The complaints against railroad management, as far as they appear 

 to be just, show that the railroad problem may be divided into two 

 parts : First, how shareholders in railroads can meet the difficulties of 

 joint-stock ownership, and control their property, so that it can be 

 made by all legitimate methods as profitable as possible. This means 

 the election of directors not as now, as a whole board by a single ma- 

 jority vote, but by a plan of minority representation, which will give 

 a voice in the directorate to every interest entitled to it. It means 

 includino- in the business such branches of traffic as are now delegated 

 to subsidiary companies, where this can be done advantageously ; and 

 the employing of officers of such high character and ability that 

 they shall be disposed to co-operate with one another to avoid ille- 

 gitimate and ruinous competition officers able to establish tariffs 

 based on sound and consistent principles, and tariffs with which no 

 subordinate officer shall have power to tamper. 



The second part of the railroad problem is how the general public, 

 while desirous of paying just remuneration to the roads, may protect 

 themselves against extortion and unjust and arbitrary discriminations. 

 This part of the subject raises the question of the constitutionality 

 and feasibility of State control, and brings up for discussion the vari- 

 ous influences which are spontaneously exerted within the railroad 

 business itself for its fair and equitable management. In the brief 

 sketch here presented of the chief complaints made against the rail- 

 roads, it has been evident that some of the most serious of these com- 

 plaints arise from the inherent difficulties of joint-stock ownership. A 

 board of directors, provided with many proxies, can do pretty much 

 as they please, and the history of American roads shows that at times 

 they please to enrich themselves at the expense of those whom they 

 represent. 



The shareholders in a large company are often a shifting, chaotic, 

 and helpless body, fortunate, indeed, when the directorate are suffi- 

 ciently honest and interested to administer affairs as they should. It 

 seems strange, too, that the management of railroads should so widely 

 permit an evil which causes so much just censure, namely, the cutting 

 of rates, by a staff of agents scattered throughout the whole country. 

 When control by the owners of railroad property remains as imperfect 

 as it is in important particulars, it certainly seems an idle task to at- 

 tempt the State control of the largest and most complicated business 

 in existence. 



The discussion of the railroad problem has given the public some 

 insight into the difficulties which beset this business. There are now 

 in the United States some twelve hundred railroad companies, more 

 or less actively competing with one another. Between two great 

 cities like New York and Chicago, and between a great center of dis- 

 tribution like St. Louis and the Atlantic seaboard, there are many 

 competing routes, and the contest for business among these routes is 



