THE POLITICAL CONTROL OF RAILWAYS. 463 



allowed to pay the railwaj^s ! It is precisely as if the Legislature 

 of New York should provide upon what quality of paper, with 

 what size of type, or color of ink " The Popular Science Monthly " 

 should be printed and furnished to its readers, the Legislature 

 meanwhile not assuming any of the expenses or responsibilities of 

 the publication, paying any losses, troubling itself about any of 

 the risks incident thereto, or even inquiring into the facts of its 

 circulation, cost of manufacture, or pay-roll : for that the Missis- 

 sippi board even made the slightest effort to inquire — or heard any 

 testimony as to — the volume of business, fixed charges, earnings or 

 operating expenses of the companies to whom it dictated disburse- 

 ments, there never was the slightest idea or claim anywhere. 

 Indeed, it was the very gist of the ruling in some of those won- 

 derful "Granger" cases (so called), that any such items as the 

 above were "too remote"; the railway company must do busi- 

 ness under schedules furnished by the shippers in Legislature 

 assembled. Would a single powerless individual on this conti- 

 nent submit to such legislation as that ? 



It is rather remarkable that, though the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission has existed almost two years at Washington, the 

 only decisions at all affecting the general railway situation 

 should come from Federal judges holding remote circuits, and that 

 both of these should contravene and ignore an extraordinary 

 tribunal created by Congress to specially oversee railways, sitting 

 at the capital itself. The first of these declared that a railroad 

 company might remain upon the earth, even though it was com- 

 pelled to charge more for a short than for a long haul ; * while the 

 other enjoins the Iowa Board of Railway Commissioners from 

 dictating the tariffs at which certain trunk lines shall do business 

 within the borders of that State, f Of this latter decision let us 

 hope that it will do something to relieve the delicate adjustments 

 of our railway systems from the lash of ward politics and unen- 

 lightened demagogy. 



Of all the popular fallacies ever discussed, it seems to me that 

 the one which invokes popular prejudice against railway compa- 

 nies has the least actual basis of merit to stand upon. As a positive 

 fact, the railway is not only chartered by the people, but can only 

 be operated for the people's convenience. In " The Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly " for May, 1888, 1 had occasion to allude to a certain 

 voluminous denunciation of incorporated industries as rehabili- 

 tating the effete institution of feudalism, which appeared to be 

 principally based upon the supposition that feudalism and des- 

 potism were convertible terms. As a matter of fact, feudalism 

 was not by any manner of means a despotism per se, even though 



* Deady, J., United States Circuit Court for Oregon. 



f Brewer, J., central division of Southern District of Iowa. 



